3042. 


vX    L  C^t^t^L^t^nJ^ 


ARTHUR  LORD,  LAWYER, 
DIES  IN  BOSTON  AT  74 

Authority  on  Pilgrim  History  Was 
Vice  President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bar  Association. 

BOSTON,  April  10.— Arthur  Lord  of 
Plymouth,  widely  known  as  an  author- 
ity on  Pilgrim  history,  died  early  today 
at  a  hotel  here  at  the  age  of  74  y^ars. 

He  was  a  native  of  Plymouth  and  was 
graduated  at  Harvard  in  1872.  For  many 
3  he  practiced  law  in  Boston  and 
Plymouth.  He  served  in  the  State  Legis- 
lature for  a  time,  was  the  first  Civil 
Service  Commissioner  of  Massachusetts 
and  was  a  member  of  the  committee  in 
charge  of  the  Plymouth  Tercentenary 
in  1921. 

When  Mr.  Lord  was  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature  in  1885  and  1880  he 
was  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Commit- 
tee, •  He  was  a  Vice  President  of  the 
American  Bar  Association  and  in  1918 
held  the  Presidency  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bar  Association.  Since  1S95  he 
had  been  President  of  the  Pilgrim  So- 
ciety. He  was  Vice  President  of  the 

;uhusetts  Historical  Society,  a 
•if  the  American  Antiquarian 
Colonial  Society,  Old  History 
nd  a  fellow  of  the  American 

•i'ny  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  His  law 
practice  in  Boston  and  Plymouth  cov- 
ered fifty  years.  From  1910  to  1914  he 
was  President  of  the  publishing  firm 
of  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.  In  1878  he 
married  Parah  Shippen  of  Boston.  His 
clubs  included  the  Union  and  Odd  Vol- 
umes of  Boston,  the  Harvard  Club  of  this 
city  and  the  Royal  Societies  of  London. 


THE  COLVER  LECTURES 

IN  BROWN  UNIVERSITY 

1920 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PH.GRIMS 

By 
Arthur  Lord 


The  Patriotism  of  the 
"Pilgrim  Fathers" 

Only  One  of  Them  Over  Twenty-Eight  Years  of  Age 


is  NOT  a  thing  that  belongs  to  mere  shout- 
ing  ;  it  belongs  to  dreaming.  It  belongs  to  a  concep- 
tion of  the  origin  of  your  people,  the  greatness  of  your 
own  family  life,  the  security  that  comes  from  reverence 
for  God  and  fidelity  to  a  holy  trust. 

You  and  I  glory  in  the  fact  that  we  belong  to  the 
American  Kepublic.  These  United  States  of  America 
had  an  origin  as  unique  and  as  wonderful  as  that  which 
belongs  to  the  Hebrew  race.  The  men  and  women  who 
came  300  years  ago  and  gathered  together  on  Plymouth 
Rock  were  a  unique  breed  and  a  unique  type.  Only  one 
of  them  was  more  than  twenty-eight  years  of  age.  All 
of  them  were  mortgaged  up  to  the  hilt.  They  had  not 
an  axe,  they  had  not  a  spade,  they  had  not  a  pick,  they 
had  not  canvas  for  a  tent,  they  had  not  a  chest  in  which 
to  put  their  clothes,  which  was  their  own.  Everything 
they  possessed  was  mortgaged;  every  man  and  every 
woman  among  them  was  bound  hand  and  foot  by  obliga- 
tion to  merchants  who  had  lent  them  things  at  tremen- 
dous —  at  extravagant  cost. 

But  there  they  were,  men  and  women  who  had  left 
a  glorious  heritage,  a  great  tradition,  because  of  a  faith 
that  burned  within  their  souls,  because  they  were  lovers 
of  freedom,  lovers  of  an  open  Bible.  —  Dr.  John  Gardner 
in  Record  of  Christian  Work. 


QBroum 


,  1920 


PLYMOUTH 
AND  THE  PILGRIMS 


BY 
ARTHUR  LORD 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

dfre  Riuersibe  pre^s  Cambridge 
1920 


COPYRIGHT,    19*3,    BY   BROWN   UNIVERSITY 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 


THE  Colver  lectureship  is  provided  by  a  fund  of 
$10,000  presented  to  the  University  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Jesse  L.  Rosenberger  of  Chicago  in  memory  of 
Mrs.  Rosenberger's  father,  Charles  K.  Colver  of  the 
class  of  1842.  The  following  sentences  from  the  letter 
accompanying  the  gift  explain  the  purposes  of  the  foun- 
dation: — 

"It  is  desired  that,  so  far  as  possible,  for  these  lectures 
only  subjects  of  particular  importance  and  lecturers  emi- 
nent in  scholarship  or  of  other  marked  qualifications  shall 
be  chosen.  It  is  desired  that  the  lectures  shall  be  dis- 
tinctive and  valuable  contributions  to  human  knowledge, 
known  for  their  quality  rather  than  their  number.  In- 
come, or  portions  of  income,  not  used  for  lectures  may 
be  used  for  the  publication  of  any  of  the  lectures  deemed 
desirable  to  be  so  published." 

Charles  Kendrick  Colver  (1821-1896)  was  a  graduate 
of  Brown  University  of  the  class  of  1842.  The  necrologist 
of  the  University  wrote  of  him:  "He  was  distinguished 
for  his  broad  and  accurate  scholarship,  his  unswerving 
personal  integrity,  championship  of  truth,  and  obedience 
to  God  in  his  daily  life.  He  was  severely  simple  and  un- 
worldly in  character." 

The  lectures  now  published  in  this  series  are:  — 

1916 

The  American  Conception  of  Liberty  and  Government,  by 
Frank  Johnson  Goodnow,  LL.D.,  President  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University. 

1917 

Medical  Research  and  Human  Welfare,  by  W.  W.  Keen, 
M.D.,  LL.D.  (Brown),  Emeritus  Professor  of  Sur- 
gery, Jefferson  Medical  College,  Philadelphia. 


2050997 


1918" 

The  Responsible  State:  A  Reexamination  of  Fundamental 
Political  Doctrines  in  the  Light  of  World  War  and  the 
Menace  of  Anarchism,  by  Franklin  Henry  Giddings, 
LL.D.,  Professor  of  Sociology  and  the  History  of 
Civilization  in  Columbia  University;  sometime  Pro- 
fessor of  Political  Science  in  Bryn  Mawr  College. 

1919 
Democracy:  Discipline:  Peace,  by  William  Roscoe  Thayer. 

1920 
Plymouth  and  the  Pilgrims,  by  Arthur  Lord. 


CONTENTS 

I.  PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS  1 

II.  THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH  58 

III.  PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS  117 


PLYMOUTH 
AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

I 

PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

THE  Pilgrim  movement  can  be  but  im- 
perfectly understood  if  treated  as  an  iso- 
lated event  in  the  world's  history,  without 
reference  to  the  conditions  which  pre- 
ceded it  and  made  its  success  possible. 
Looking  at  it  broadly,  it  was  part  of  a 
great  world  movement,  and  its  relation  to 
that  movement  must  be  considered  in 
order  to  understand  its  meaning  and  ap- 
preciate the  result. 

No  fact  has  had  a  greater  influence  on 
the  history  of  civilization,  as  stated  by  an 
eminent  scholar,  than  that  "the  land  of 
the  globe  is  divided  into  two  great  sec- 
tions, the  mass  of  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa  on  the  one  side  and  the  two  Amer- 
icas on  the  other,  and  that  one  of  these 
1 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

worlds  remained  unknown  to  the  other 
till  only  four  hundred  years  ago." 

The  fact  that  the  New  World  was  situ- 
ated at  such  a  distance  from  the  other  at  a 
time  when,  unlike  the  present,  the  waste 
of  oceans  divided,  not  united,  the  two 
continents,  made  it  possible  to  break  old 
traditions,  to  revise  old  institutions,  and 
to  think  out  a  new  philosophy  to  fit  an  in- 
fant society,  and  at  the  same  time  what- 
soever there  was  in  the  inheritance  from 
the  Old  World  which  seemed  good  and 
available  might  be  kept.  It  was  an  op- 
portunity which  had  never  before  been 
offered  in  history,  and  in  the  study  of 
modern  institutions  that  fact  must  al- 
ways be  borne  in  mind,  for  its  influence 
upon  the  result  can  never  be  overesti- 
mated. 

It  must  be  remembered  also  how  singu- 
larly helpful  in  the  development  of  the 
North  American  continent  was  its  con- 
figuration, its  geographical  and  topo- 
graphical details.  When  Magellan  in  1520 
passed  through  the  straits  which  bear  his 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

name  and  sailed  northward  through  the 
dreary  wastes  of  the  Pacific,  he  had  es- 
tablished the  fact  that  the  earth  was  in 
reality  a  globe,  not  a  plane,  and  that  the 
New  World  was  separated  from  the  Old 
on  both  sides  by  a  thousand  leagues  of 
ocean. 

When  Champlain  landed  upon  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  as  reported  in  his 
narrative  of  a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies 
and  Mexico  in  the  years  1599-1602,  his 
keen  vision  noted,  as  he  stood  by  the  little 
river  which  rises  in  the  mountains  and 
descends  to  Porto  Bello,  that 

One  may  judge  that  if  the  four  leagues  of  land 
which  there  are  from  Panama  to  this  river 
were  cut  through,  one  might  pass  from  the 
south  sea  to  the  ocean  on  the  other  side,  and 
thus  shorten  the  route  by  more  than  fifteen 
hundred  leagues,  and  from  Panama  to  the 
Straits  of  Magellan  would  be  an  Island,  and 
from  Panama  to  the  New-Found-Lands  would 
be  another  island,  so  that  the  whole  of  Amer- 
ica would  be  in  two  islands. 

Again  a  glance  at  the  map  shows  that 
the  line  of  early  discoveries  established 
3 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  fact  that  the  territory  which  we  call 
the  United  States  has  its  eastern  shores 
deeply  indented  by  great  bays  and  its  in- 
terior pierced  by  mighty  rivers,  later  to 
become  the  highways  of  commerce,  which 
made  possible  the  rapid  growth  of  settle- 
ment as  soon  as  political  conditions  per- 
mitted, which  would  have  been  impossible 
elsewhere.  For  instance,  the  headwaters 
of  the  Hudson  nearly  meet  the  mighty  St. 
Lawrence  and  almost  permitted  the  bark 
of  the  early  voyager  to  encircle  that  north- 
eastern part  of  the  continent  lying  south 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  east  of  the  Hud- 
son, as  if  it  were  an  island.  English  forces 
in  the  Revolution  recognized  that  fact,  and 
it  was  part  of  their  strategy  to  separate 
New  England  from  the  other  colonies  by  a 
union  of  the  forces  of  Sir  William  Howe 
and  Burgoyne  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
Hudson.  A  union  of  the  Potomac  flowing 
into  the  Chesapeake  with  the  Ohio  flowing 
into  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Mississippi 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  makes  another 
island  with  these  arteries  as  its  northern 
4 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  western  boundary,  and  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Gulf  as  its  southern  and  eastern 
boundary.  Washington  urged  that  the 
capital  city  of  the  United  States  be  lo- 
cated on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  be- 
cause he  anticipated  the  union  of  the 
waters  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Potomac  by 
a  canal.  His  clear  vision  saw  the  possi- 
bility, in  this  junction  of  the  waterways, 
of  the  interchange  of  the  produce  of  east 
and  west  along  this  imperial  highway. 
Through  ages  this  New  World  had  slept 
unnoticed  by  the  voyagers  and  explorers 
of  Europe,  if  we  omit  that  incident,  not  a 
factor  in  its  development,  of  its  discovery 
by  the  Northmen. 

Without  entering  into  any  analytical 
discussion  of  those  Norse  voyages,  or  of 
the  claim  that  the  "Cape  Kjalarnes"  of 
Thorwald  is  Cape  Cod,  "Cape  Kros- 
sanes"  is  the  Gurnet,  and  that  on  the 
Gurnet,  at  the  entrance  of  Plymouth 
Harbor,  the  bold  Norseman  was  buried  — 
without  accepting  that  view  too  literally, 
the  conclusion  which  I  have  reached,  after 
5 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

a  somewhat  careful  consideration  of  the 
arguments  pro  and  con,  is  that  so  well 
stated  by  the  latest  and  best  writer  upon 
the  subject  in  his  "Voyages  of  the  Norse- 
men to  America,"  William  Hovgaard,  late 
a  Commander  in  the  Royal  Danish  Navy 
and  Professor  of  Naval  Design  and  Con- 
struction in  the  Massachusetts  Institute 
of  Technology,  published  in  1914,  that  the 
Norsemen  gave  to  Cape  Cod  the  name  of 
"Cape  Kjalarnes"  and  to  a  headland, 
either  at  Nahant  or  Marblehead  or  one  of 
the  other  headlands  near  by,  the  name  of 
"Krossanes."  With  this  passing  reference 
I  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  the  re- 
corded and  undoubted  explorations  of 
that  part  of  the  North  American  conti- 
nent now  mainly  included  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  present  United  States. 

When  in  1492  Columbus  landed  on  the 
Island  of  Guanahani,  which  he  called 
"San  Salvador,"  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
raised  the  Spanish  flag,  the  title  of  Spain 
in  the  New  World,  based  upon  discovery 
merely,  began,  and  at  once  the  rival  claim 
6 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

of  Portugal,  by  reason  of  her  discovery  of 
the  Azores,  was  presented.  The  contro- 
versy between  these  two  Catholic  coun- 
tries was  submitted  to  the  Pope  for  his 
decision,  and  on  the  3d  of  May,  1493, 
Pope  Alexander  VI  issued  his  Bull  of 
Demarcation  conferring  upon  Spain  all 
the  lands  and  islands  found  or  to  be 
found,  discovered  or  to  be  discovered  in 
the  western  ocean,  drawing  a  line  from 
north  to  south. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  such  a  grant  of 
territory  could  not  be  accepted  by  Por- 
tugal without  a  protest,  and  on  the  next 
day  a  second  bull  modified  the  first  by 
fixing  the  Spanish  donation  to  the  west 
of  a  meridian  drawn  one  hundred  leagues 
west  of  the  Azores  and  Cape  de  Verde 
Islands. 

By  the  treaty  signed  at  Tordesillas  on 
June  7, 1494,  Spain  yielded  to  the  demand 
of  Portugal  and  agreed  to  the  moving  of 
this  line  west  to  a  distance  of  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy  leagues  west  of  the  Cape 
de  Verde  Islands,  namely,  between  the 
7 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

forty-first  and  forty-fourth  meridians 
west  of  Greenwich,  and  under  this  new 
line  of  partition  the  Brazilian  coast  came 
to  Portugal. 

When  charters  were  granted  to  the 
Cabots  and  others  for  the  New  World, 
these  charters,  in  order  to  be  as  therein 
stated  "without  prejudice  to  Spain  and 
Portugal,"  did  not  grant  territorial  rights 
south  of  forty-four  degrees  north,  a  line 
running  through  the  present  Nova  Scotia. 
John  Cabot  in  1497  had  made  his  landfall 
on  the  shores  of  the  New  World  at  some 
point  north  of  Halifax.  How  far  south 
along  the  coast  of  North  America  Sebas- 
tian Cabot  sailed  is  a  matter  of  contro- 
versy, but  it  is  generally  admitted  that 
Verazzano,  under  a  commission  from 
Francis  I  of  Portugal,  sailing  northward 
from  the  Carolinas,  entered  the  bays  of 
New  York  and  Newport  and  then  coasted 
along  the  shore  nearly  to  Cape  Breton. 
His  letter  to  Francis  of  July  8,  1524,  is  the 
earliest  original  and  contemporaneous 
description  of  the  Atlantic  coast  along 
8 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

which  he  sailed.  If  he  followed  the  shore- 
line as  closely  as  his  letter  would  indicate, 
it  is  probable  that  his  frail  bark  was  the 
first  European  vessel  which  the  Indian 
watcher  on  the  hill  at  Plymouth  ever  saw. 
The  extent  and  influence  of  the  early 
fisheries  in  emphasizing  and  developing 
the  importance  of  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World  as  a  source  of  food  supply  to 
continental  Europe,  were  a  prime  factor 
in  stimulating  the  long  line  of  exploring 
expeditions  in  the  sixteenth  century.  An 
English  captain,  John  Rut,  writes  to 
Henry  VIII  on  August  3, 1527,  that  in  the 
harbor  of  St.  John,  Newfoundland,  he 
found  "eleven  sails  of  Normans  and  one 
Brittaine  and  two  Portugal  barkes  all 
afishing."  By  1577  France  was  vigorously 
and  successfully  carrying  on  the  fishery 
with  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
vessels,  and  at  that  date  Spain  had  one 
hundred  ships  employed,  flying  her  flag, 
and  the  flag  of  Portugal  flew  on  fifty 
Portuguese  ships.  Under  the  English 
statute  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
9 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

three  days  in  the  year  when  English  citi- 
zens were  required  to  abstain  from  flesh 
and  eat  fish,  and  as  early  as  1548  the  first 
English  statute  which  relates  to  the  New 
World  refers  to  the  adventures  and  jour- 
neys of  her  fishermen  into  Iceland  and 
Newfoundland,  and  "other  places  com- 
modious for  fishing  and  the  getting  of 
fish."  Two  hundred  English  ships  went 
each  year  to  the  Grand  Banks  by  1600 
and  employed  on  board  and  on  shore  ten 
thousand  men  and  boys. 

The  first  English  charter  for  American 
colonization  was  granted  to  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Gilbert,  and  in  1583  he  entered  the 
harbor  of  St.  John  and  found  there  thirty- 
six  vessels  of  different  nations. 

With  the  dawn  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury the  annual  voyages  were  so  regular 
that  one  fishing  captain,  it  was  said,  had 
made  forty  consecutive  trips.  When  we 
consider  the  imperfect  methods  of  naviga- 
tion, the  size  and  rig  of  the  little  vessels, 
and  the  distance  from  home  ports  of  the 
Grand  Banks,  it  would  seem  that  the  en- 
10 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

comiums  which  Burke  paid  to  the  hardy 
fishermen  of  New  England  in  his  speech  on 
"  Conciliation  with  America,"  apply  with 
even  greater  force  to  those  daring  navi- 
gators of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
controversies  over  the  rights  of  the  fish- 
eries and  fishing  grounds  were  between 
France  and  England,  for  Spain  made  no 
claim  to  exclusive  rights.  The  claim  of 
England  to  these  shores  rested  on  the 
discovery  by  Cabot  and  the  occupation 
by  Gilbert. 

May  I  briefly  recall  some  of  the  first  at- 
tempts of  exploration  and  colonization? 
In  1506  Jean  Deys,  of  the  port  of  Har- 
fleur,  published  a  map  of  this  recently  dis- 
covered coast,  and  two  years  later  Thomas 
Aubert,  a  pilot  sailing  from  the  port  of 
Dieppe,  on  his  return  brought  with  him  to 
France  an  Indian  captive,  the  first  visitor 
from  the  New  World  to  the  Old. 

The  early  French  attempts  to  form  set- 
tlements in  Canada  were  unsuccessful. 
Jaques  Cartier  had  discovered  and  ex- 
plored the  Bay  of  Chaleurs  as  early  as 
11 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

1534,  and  in  the  following  year  he  sailed 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  as  far  as  the  Saguenay 
River,  to  an  island  where  he  spent  the 
winter,  and  the  next  spring  continued  his 
voyage  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  present 
site  of  Montreal.  The  severity  of  the  cli- 
mate was  fatal  to  many  of  his  company 
and  he  returned  to  France  to  renew  the 
attempt  again  to  form  a  colony  in  Canada 
in  1541,  and  again  to  meet  with  disap- 
pointment and  failure. 

Ribaut's  expedition  was  equally  unsuc- 
cessful. He  built  a  fort  near  the  spot 
where  Charleston  is  situated,  but  famine 
and  disease  swept  through  the  little  set- 
tlements and  the  few  survivors  escaped 
with  difficulty. 

The  expeditions  of  Rene  de  Laudon- 
niere  and  De  Gourgues  to  Florida  were  as 
unsuccessful  as  their  predecessors.  The 
Spaniards,  if  not  more  enterprising,  were 
more  successful  than  the  French  explor- 
ers, in  the  extent  of  their  explorations. 
Ay  lion  planted  a  colony  in  1526  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  north  of  Hatteras,  possibly 
12 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

on  the  site  of  the  English  settlement 
nearly  a  hundred  years  before  Jamestown, 
only  to  perish  without  leaving  any  trace 
of  its  struggle  and  failure. 

De  Soto  had  landed  in  Florida  in  1539, 
penetrated  through  the  interior  to  the 
Mississippi  River,  explored  the  river  as 
far  north  as  New  Madrid,  and  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  daring  and  his  enterprise 
with  his  death,  and  is  buried  in  the  chan- 
nel of  the  river  whose  waters  have  never 
given  up  the  secret  of  his  burial-place. 

Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles,  whom 
Channing  has  well  described  as  the 
"bloodiest  Spaniard  who  has  ever  cursed 
the  American  soil  —  and  one  of  the 
ablest,"  in  1565  lands  in  Florida,  brutally 
destroys  the  French  settlements,  and 
plants  the  first  permanent  settlement  in 
the  New  World. 

Perhaps  the  most  picturesque  and  strik- 
ing adventure  of  the  sixteenth  century 
was  the  extraordinary  march  of  three  of 
the  members  of  the  company  of  John 
Hawkins,  who  sailed  in  October,  1567,  on 
13 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

his  third  voyage  to  the  New  World.  His 
fleet  consisted  of  five  vessels,  three  of  which 
were  lost  in  his  great  fight  with  the  Span- 
iards in  September,  1568,  at  Vera  Cruz. 
Somewhere  to  the  northward  of  what  is 
now  the  Bay  of  Tampico  in  Mexico,  in  the 
October  following  the  fight  at  Vera  Cruz, 
he  set  ashore  one  hundred  and  fourteen  of 
his  ship's  company.  Three  of  these,  whose 
names  should  not  be  forgotten,  David 
Ingram,  Richard  Browne,  and  Richard 
Twide,  marched  northward  through  the 
unknown  and  pathless  forests,  and  at  last, 
after  nearly  twelve  months  of  laborious 
journey,  reached  the  Atlantic  coast,  south 
of  Cape  Breton,  where  they  found  a 
French  ship,  which  returned  them  in 
safety  to  their  English  homes.  Perhaps 
the  names  of  those  dauntless  three  are 
still  as  worthy  of  preservation  as  the 
names  of  those  who  fell  on  the  English 
side  at  Agincourt  — 

"Edward,  the  Duke  of  York,  the  Earl  of  Suffolk, 
Sir  Richard  Keltey,  Davy  Ham,  Esquire, 
None  else  of  name." 

14 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  English  expeditions  to  the  New 
World  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  as 
fruitless  of  permanent  settlement  as  the 
French.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  in  1583 
sailed  with  seven  ships  on  his  voyage  to  the 
west  and  northwest  of  America.  The  ex- 
pedition reached  Newfoundland,  posses- 
sion was  taken  in  the  name  and  right  of 
England,  and  Gilbert  sailed  for  home  on  a 
little  ship  of  ten  tons,  called  the  "Squir- 
rel," and  was  lost  on  the  passage.  If  the 
result  of  the  adventure  was  not  impor- 
tant, yet  he  at  least  left  behind  him  the 
memory  of  a  gallant  deed  and  words  of 
courage  and  of  faith  which  may  well  have 
been  an  inspiration  to  the  adventurous 
seamen  who  followed. 

"He  sat  upon  the  deck, 

The  Book  was  hi  his  hand, 

'Do  not  fear,  Heaven  is  as  near,' 
He  said,  'by  water  as  by  land!"1 

The  expeditions  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
Sir  Richard  Grenville,  of  Philip  Amadas 
and  Arthur  Barlowe,  contributed  infor- 
mation as  to  the  coast-line  south  of  the 
15 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Chesapeake,  but  their  attempts  at  Roa- 
noke  Island  and  elsewhere  were  as  fruit- 
less as  those  which  had  preceded  them. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  what  an  impres- 
sion of  accomplishment  and  success  these 
early  voyages  of  exploration  and  discov- 
ery had  made  upon  the  minds  of  the 
dauntless  navigators  of  that  period.  The 
spirit  which  inspired  Sir  Martin  Fro- 
bisher  as  early  as  1576,  in  his  search  for 
the  northwest  passage,  to  sail  the  un- 
charted seas,  was  because  he  knew  "this  to 
be  the  only  thing  in  the  world  that  was  left 
yet  undone,  where  a  notable  mind  might 
be  made  famous  and  fortunate."  The 
sixteenth  century  closed  with  no  perma- 
ment  settlement  as  yet  established  north 
of  Florida. 

The  destruction  of  the  Spanish  fleet  at 
Cadiz  and  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  in 
1588  secured  the  early  settlements  of  the 
seventeenth  century  against  Spanish  at- 
tack, and  yet  the  apprehension  of  peril 
from  the  Spaniards  lingered  for  many 
years,  and  was  a  factor  in  determining 
16 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

their  location.  The  general  instruction 
given  to  the  first  expeditions  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  was  to  find  a  location  in 
the  New  World  up  some  river,  at  some 
distance  from  the  seacoast,  so  that  there 
would  be  less  danger  from  and  more  se- 
curity against  the  Spaniards. 

One  consideration  which  deterred  the 
Pilgrim  Company  from  settlement  in 
Guiana  was  that  "if  they  should  there 
live  and  did  well,  the  jealous  Spaniard 
would  never  suffer  them  long,  but  would 
displant  or  overthrow  them,  as  he  did  the 
French  in  Florida;  who  were  seated  fur- 
ther from  his  richest  countries."  William 
Wood,  writing  as  late  as  1634,  referring  to 
the  apprehension  of  Spanish  attack  and 
the  reasons  why  it  should  not  deter  the 
plantations  along  the  New  England  coast 
at  least,  says: 

Some  say  the  Spaniard  layes  claime  to  the 
whole  country,  being  the  first  discoverer 
hereof,  and  that  he  may  make  invasion  upon 
those  parts  as  well  as  he  hath  done  upon  S. 
Christophers,  and  S.  Martins,  and  those 
places;  but  it  doth  not  follow  that  because  he 

17 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

tooke  such  places  as  lay  just  in  his  way  to  the 
West  Indies,  that  he  should  come  thousands 
of  miles  with  a  great  Navie  to  plantations,  as 
yet  not  worth  the  pillage:  and  when  the  plan- 
tations are  growne  noted  in  the  eyes  of  the 
common  foes  for  wealth,  it  is  hoped  that  when 
the  Bees  have  Honie  in  their  Hives,  they  will 
have  stings  in  then*  tailes.1 

In  the  settlements  which  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  seventeenth  century  two 
material  factors  must  be  considered :  first, 
the  grounds  upon  which  the  colonists 
based  their  right  and  title  to  their  posses- 
sions in  the  New  World;  and  second,  that 
other  factor  which  contributed  so  much  to 
the  result;  namely,  the  early  and  success- 
ful adventures  were  under  the  manage- 
ment and  control  of  chartered  companies 
who  brought  to  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lems, which  had  so  often  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  the  infant  colonies  of  the 
preceding  century,  business  experience  and 
enterprise,  initiative  and  ample  means. 

The  title  which  the  settlers  acquired  in 
the  New  World  was  based  upon  one  or 

1  New  England's  Prospect,  p.  57. 
18 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

more  of  these  five  grounds:  first,  prescrip- 
tion or  discovery;  second,  possession  and 
occupancy;  third,  purchase;  fourth,  treaty 
stipulations;  and  fifth,  conquest. 
-  At  the  outset  the  title  of  Spain,  France, 
Portugal,  Holland,  and  England  to  the 
New  World  rested  upon  the  right  of  dis- 
covery. This  principle  of  law,  generally 
adopted  by  all  European  nations  in  case 
of  a  conflict  of  title,  involved  the  determi- 
nation as  to  whether  the  flag  of  the  claim- 
ant country  flew  at  the  masthead  of  the 
first  discoverer.  If  it  were  conceded  at  first 
that  a  nation  could  acquire  title  in  some 
little  island  because  a  navigator  sailing 
under  the  King's  commission  had  landed 
there  and  planted  his  country's  flag,  it 
could  not  long  be  conceded  that  a  mere 
landing  and  nothing  more  gave  title  to 
the  whole  of  the  New  World. 

The  English  claim  was  based  upon  the 
discovery  by  Cabot  and  the  alleged  fact 
that  he  had  coasted  the  shores  of  the  New 
World  from  the  place  of  his  landfall  as  far 
south  as  Virginia.  The  next  step  was  to 
19 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

assert  and  maintain  the  proposition  that 
the  title  by  discovery  must  be  consum- 
mated by  actual  settlement  and  posses- 
sion. If  it  were  conceded  that  the  Indians 
had  title  to  the  soil  by  virtue  of  aboriginal 
occupancy  and  possession,  such  use  and 
occupancy  must  have  been  actual  and  not 
merely  desultory  or  constructive.  The  In- 
dian title  to  the  soil  was  acquired  by  the 
Pilgrim  Company  not  only  under  the 
patent  defining  their  territorial  limits,  but 
also  by  purchase  from  the  aboriginal  pro- 
prietors. 

The  seventeenth  century  in  American 
history  is  the  century  of  occupation,  not 
merely  of  discovery,  the  century  of  explo- 
ration of  the  interior  and  not  of  the  coast 
alone;  the  century  of  permanent  settle- 
ment and  colonization;  the  century  of  real- 
ization and  not  of  hopes  frustrated  and  am- 
bitions defeated  and  dreams  unfulfilled. 

Under  the  charter  of  1606  which  King 
James  gave  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  his 
associates  and  under  which  the  first  per- 
manent English  settlement  was  made,  the 
20 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

territories  granted  lay  between  the  thirty- 
fourth  and  forty-fifth  degrees  of  north 
latitude,  and  were  subject  to  the  limita- 
tion "not  then  possessed  by  any  other 
Christian  prince  or  people."  But  in  fact 
the  English  title  to  a  large  part  of  North 
America,  if  claimed  to  be  based  on  dis- 
covery or  occupation,  was  finally  settled 
by  the  sword. 

The  grantees  named  in  this  charter  of 
1606  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  divided  under  its  terms  into 
two  colonies  and  companies.  The  first, 
the  London  or  Southern  Company,  was 
granted  authority  to  locate  its  plantation 
in  some  fit  and  convenient  place  between 
the  thirty-fourth  and  forty -first  degrees  of 
north  latitude,  and  when  so  located  the 
charter  granted  them  fifty  miles  north 
and  fifty  miles  south  of  such  location,  as 
well  as  one  hundred  miles  into  the  sea  and 
one  hundred  miles  into  the  land.  The 
second,  or  Northern  or  Plymouth  Com- 
pany, composed  of  citizens  of  Bristol, 
Exeter,  and  Plymouth,  was  granted  per- 
21 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

mission  to  locate  its  plantation  between 
the  thirty-eighth  and  forty-fifth  degrees 
of  north  latitude,  with  the  same  territorial 
extent.  The  grants  were  made  subject  to 
the  condition  that  colonies  should  not  be 
planted  within  a  hundred  miJes  of  each 
other.  Each  colony  had  a  council  and  over 
both  was  the  council  called  the  Council  of 
Virginia,  established  in  London. 

In  that  charter  were  two  provisions 
which  were  of  vital  influence  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  new  settlements  which  later 
were  to  be  established  by  these  two  com- 
panies. The  first  was  that  the  inhabitants 
and  their  children  born  in  these  new  plan- 
tations or  settlements  were  to  have  and 
enjoy  all  "Liberties,  Franchises,  and  Im- 
munities as  if  they  had  been  abiding  and 
born  within  the  English  realm."  And 
second,  the  provision  that  the  lands 
granted  were  to  be  "holden  of  Us,  our 
Heirs  and  Successors,  as  of  our  Manour  of 
East  Greenwich  in  the  County  of  Kent,  in 
free  and  common  Soccage  only  and  not  in 
Capite." 

22 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  charter  granted  to  the  Northern 
Virginia  Company  in  November,  1620, 
and  under  which  the  patent  of  1620  and 
the  Bradford  patent  of  1629  were  issued, 
out  of  special  precaution  added  to  the 
words  "in  Capite"  the  words  "nor  by 
knights  service."  These  two  provisions, 
often  overlooked  in  the  story  of  New  Eng- 
land plantations  and  development,  de- 
serve some  analysis  and  explanation.  Be- 
fore the  settlement  at  Plymouth  it  was,  of 
course,  certain  that  the  English  settlers  in 
this  New  World  would  bring  with  them 
not  only  the  language,  manners,  customs, 
traditions,  and  history  of  England,  but  it 
was  also  determined  that  they  would 
bring  with  them  its  statutes  and  common 
law,  and  the  rights,  privileges,  and  liber- 
ties of  Englishmen,  and  the  protection  of 
the  English  flag.  The  tenure  and  descent 
of  lands  was  also  fixed  and  the  effect  of 
these  provisions  in  the  development  of 
the  English  settlements  at  Plymouth  and 
elsewhere  cannot  be  disregarded  nor  over- 
estimated. 

23 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  phrase  "free  and  common  socage" 
describes  the  tenure  by  which  a  man  holds 
his  estate  in  lands.  As  defined  in  the  char- 
ter, it  is  not  in  capite  or  by  knight's  serv- 
ice, but  by  a  tenure  free  from  any  personal 
or  military  service.  By  the  later  statute 
of  12  Charles  II,  c.  24,  the  tenure  by 
knight's  service  was  abolished  and  all  the 
lands  were  declared  to  be  henceforth  held 
"in  free  and  common  socage."  The  tenure 
in  capite  was  where  the  holding  was  of  the 
person  of  the  King,  and  the  tenure  by 
knight's  service  was  military  in  its  charac- 
ter, required  the  possession  of  a  certain 
quantity  of  land,  and  compelled  the 
owner  to  attend  his  lord  to  wars  forty 
days  in  every  year,  if  called  upon. 

This  statute  of  Charles  II  [says  Blackstone] 
was  a  greater  acquisition  to  the  civil  property 
of  the  kingdom  than  even  Magna  Charta  it- 
self, since  that  only  pruned  the  luxuriances 
which  had  grown  out  of  military  tenures,  and 
thereby  preserved  them  in  vigor.  But  the 
statute  of  King  Charles  extirpated  the  whole 
and  demolished  both  root  and  branch. 

The  practical  effect  in  the  New  World 
24 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

then  was  that  they  acquired  a  freehold  es- 
tate upon  which  there  was  no  obligation 
for  service,  and  the  only  limitation  was 
the  fifth  of  all  ores  which  might  be  found 
in  the  mines  on  their  property. 

The  other  definitive  term,  "as  of  the 
manour  of  East  Greenwich  in  our  County 
of  Kent,"  created  a  tenure  in  gavelkind 
peculiar  to  the  county  of  Kent;  of  its  dis- 
tinguishing properties  the  principal  one  is 
that  under  that  tenure  "  the  lands  descend 
not  to  the  eldest,  or  any  one  son  only,  but 
to  the  sons  together.  Gavelkind,  give  all 
kynd;  that  is,  to  all  the  male  children."  1 
Whether  that  privilege  was  granted  to  the 
men  of  Kent  because  of  their  determined 
resistance,  or  because  of  their  ready  sub- 
mission to  William  the  Conqueror,  or 
whether  "it  carry  an  Antiquity  far  greater 
than  the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest," 
as  Somner  thought,  is  of  course  not  here 
material.  It  was  a  form  of  tenure  then  for 
the  yeomanry  and  not  for  the  nobility; 
this  abolition  of  primogeniture,  this  di- 

1  Somner,  Treatise  on  Gavelkind,  1660. 
25 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

visible  inheritance  made  impossible  a 
feudal  system  here. 

The  provisions  of  the  Colony  Law  of 
1633,  reenaeted  in  1658,  provided  "that 
inheritance  do  descend  according  to  the 
commendable  custome  of  Engl.  and  hold 
of  Est.  Greenwich."  But  under  the  General 
Laws  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth, 
revised  and  established  in  1671,  it  was 
enacted  that 

Whatsoever  lands  have  or  shall  be  granted  by 
the  court  to  the  respective  townships  or  to 
any  particular  persons,  either  by  the  court  or 
particular  townships,  shall  be  held  to  them, 
their  heirs,  successors  and  assigns  forever, 
according  to  the  most  free  tenor  of  East 
Greenwich  in  the  county  of  Kent,  in  the  realm 
of  England,  granted  unto  us  in  our  charter 
and  patent  and  our  inheritances  to  descend 
according  to  the  tenure  thereof.1 

And  under  the  General  Laws  of  1671 
(p.  299),  it  was  provided  that 

all  the  Sons  of  any  persons  having  lands  in 
fee  simple  shall  be  Heirs,  .  .  .  the  Eldest  Son 
shall  have  double  to  any  of  his  Brethren,  and 
all  the  younger  equal  Shares  of  the  Land  of 
1  Colony  Laws,  p.  279. 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

their  Ancestors,  and  when  there  is  but  one  son, 
he  shall  be  sole  heir  .  .  .  and  where  there  is  no 
son,  all  the  daughters  shall  inherit  alike. 

Now  that  modification  of  the  law  of  gavel- 
kind,  and  of  the  manor  of  East  Green- 
wich, you  will  find  the  reason  for  in  Deu- 
teronomy xxi,  17: 

If  a  man  have  more  sons  than  one,  the  eld- 
est shall  have  a  double  portion  assigned  him. 

This  establishment  of  freehold  lands  or 
lands  held  in  fee  simple,  and  its  division 
among  all  the  sons,  was  an  efficient  factor 
in  securing  the  permanent  settlement  of 
the  country  by  actual  cultivators  of  the 
soil. 

In  1609  a  new  charter  was  given  by  the 
King  to  the  Southern  or  First  Colony,  by 
which  the  King  granted  to  the  "Treasurer 
of  Company  of  Adventurers  of  the  City  of 
London  for  the  First  Colony  in  Virginia" 
the  lands  extending  along  the  seacoast 
two  hundred  miles  to  the  northward  of 
Point  Comfort  and  two  hundred  miles  to 
the  southward,  and  the  islands  lying 
within  a  hundred  miles  along  said  coast 
27 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  "up  in  to  the  land  throughout  from 
the  sea  west  and  northwest."  In  1620 
a  charter  was  granted  to  the  Duke  of 
Lenox  and  others  therein,  called  the 
"  Plymouth  Company,"  under  which  they 
took  title  to  the  land  lying  between  the 
fortieth  and  forty-eighth  degrees  of  north 
latitude. 

Chief  Justice  Marshall,  speaking  for  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the 
case  of  Johnson  and  Graham,  Lessees, 
vs.  Macintosh,1  refers  and  conforms  his 
opinion  to 

the  principle  which  has  been  supposed  to  be 
recognized  by  all  European  governments  from 
the  first  settlement  of  America  —  the  abso- 
lute, ultimate  title  has  been  considered  as 
acquired  by  discovery,  subject  only  to  the 
Indian  title  of  occupancy,  which  title  the  dis- 
coverers possessed  the  exclusive  right  of  ac- 
quiring. 

Under  the  powers  granted  by  the  char- 
ters the  grantees  therein  issued  their  pat- 
ents to  such  grantees  as  they  might  se- 
lect, by  whom  or  their  assigns  the  actual 

1  8  Wheaton,  p.  543. 
28 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

occupancy  of  the  patented  territory  might 
be  reasonably  expected,  and  the  perma- 
nent settlements  were  based  upon  these 
chartered  rights,  so  far  as  relate  to  the 
English  occupation  of  the  country. 

It  was  reserved  to  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury to  witness  the  realization  of  the  dreams 
of  French  and  English  discoverers  and  ex- 
plorers to  establish  in  the  New  World  per- 
manent colonies.  It  is  material  briefly  to 
note  here  the  establishment  of  the  perma- 
nent French  settlements  along  the  banks 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  shores  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy,  and  that  of  the  Dutch  at 
New  Netherland. 

In  1603  Pierre  du  Gast,  Sieur  de  Monts, 
was  named  by  the  King  of  France  Vice- 
Admiral  of  the  coast  of  Arcady  from  the 
fortieth  to  the  forty-sixth  degree  of  north 
latitude,  and  in  the  following  year  he  was 
made  the  Lieutenant  of  the  same  territory. 
With  the  aid  of  the  merchants  of  the 
seacoast  towns  of  France,  De  Monts 
equipped  three  ships,  and  taking  Cham- 
plain  with  him  he  sailed  from  Dieppe  in 
29 


1603.  The  ships  with  De  Monts  and 
Champlain,  upon  their  arrival  in  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  selected  an  island  which  it  was 
thought  was  adapted  for  permanent  set- 
tlement, the  ships  were  unloaded  and  sent 
back  to  France,  fort  and  houses  built,  and 
a  permanent  settlement  effected.  The 
tercentenary  of  the  settlements  of  De 
Monts  and  Champlain  was  celebrated  in 
1904.  The  next  three  years  Champlain 
was  busily  engaged  in  exploring  the  coast 
as  far  south  as  Cape  Cod,  and  in  1607  re- 
turned with  De  Monts  to  France. 

The  settlement  of  New  Netherland  by 
the  Dutch  discoverers,  industrious,  frugal, 
brave  men  of  whom  it  has  been  said  "they 
also  imported  the  lights  of  the  Roman 
civil  law  and  the  purity  of  the  Protestant 
faith,"  was  brought  later  into  close  con- 
nection with  the  settlement  at  Plymouth. 

In  1609,  in  a  little  vessel  called  the 
"Half  Moon,"  manned  by  sixteen  Eng- 
lishmen and  Hollanders,  the  Amsterdam 
directors  sent  Henry  Hudson  to  the  New 
World.  Sailing  from  the  Texel  on  the  6th 
30 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

of  April,  he  first  reached  Newfoundland, 
then  Acadia,  then,  steering  southwest, 
discovered  Cape  Cod,  and  followed  the 
coast  as  far  south  as  Cape  Henlopen,  then 
northward  to  the  great  river  which  he  first 
discovered  and  explored,  and  which  bears 
his  name.  It  was  not  his  happy  fortune 
ever  to  return,  either  to  the  North  or  Hud- 
son River,  or  to  the  coast  of  New  Eng- 
land, for  the  next  year  he  sailed  to  the  bay 
and  straits  which  bear  his  name  in  the  Far 
North,  a  mutinous  crew  set  him  and  five 
of  his  companions  afloat  in  an  open  boat, 
and  he  was  never  heard  of  more. 

Hudson's  report  was  effective  in  induc- 
ing the  Dutch  merchants  under  authority 
of  the  States  General  to  equip  a  ship,  and 
in  the  year  1614  a  small  fort  on  an  island 
in  the  North  River  was  built  and  garri- 
soned, and  the  Dutch  possession  and  oc- 
cupancy began. 

The   Netherlands   claim   covered   the 

territory  from  Delaware  River  to  Cape 

Cod,  including  the  island  in  Long  Island 

Sound  and  along  the  coast,  and  extending 

31 


up  the  Hudson  River  as  far  as  Albany, 
and  up  the  Connecticut  River  to  Fort 
Good  Hope.  The  Dutch  title  to  this  terri- 
tory, acquired  by  discovery,  occupation, 
and  purchase  from  the  Indians,  was  prior 
and  superior  to  that  of  the  English  as  a 
matter  of  strict  construction  of  then  ad- 
mitted principles,  but  the  Netherlands 
lacked  the  adequate  force  to  protect  the 
rights  of  their  settlers  so  obtained,  and 
half  a  century  later  the  Dutch  were  ex- 
pelled by  force  from  the  territory  which 
they  had  won  and  enjoyed. 

It  is  necessary  only  to  refer  briefly  to 
the  Gosnold  expedition  of  1602  to  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard  and  the  Elizabeth  Isles, 
and  to  the  settlement  at  Sagadahoc.  The 
Gosnold  expedition  sailed  from  Falmouth 
on  March  26,  1602,  hi  a  small  bark  of 
Dartmouth  called  the  "Concord,"  and 
consisted  in  all  "of  two  and  thirtie  per- 
sons." Brereton  in  his  relation,  first  pub- 
lished in  1602,  thus  simply  describes  the 
first  recorded  landing  of  Englishmen  on 
the  New  England  coast,  "Capt.  Bar- 
32 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

tholomew  Gosnold,  myself  and  three 
others  went  ashore." 

This  first  landing  was  made  at  Cape 
Cod,  and  because  of  the  extraordinary 
abundance  of  fish  in  the  vicinity  the  ap- 
propriate name  "  Cape  Cod  "  was  given  to 
the  cape,  well  known  to  early  voyagers. 
This  was  the  first  time  an  English  name 
was  given  to  any  part  of  New  England, 
and  from  the  same  expedition  we  get 
the  names  of  "Martha's  Vineyard"  and 
"Elizabeth  Isles." 

The  Popham  Colony  at  Sagadahoc  had 
but  a  brief  and  unimportant  existence.  It 
sailed  in  June,  1607,  and  the  little  vessels 
returned  in  the  following  October  and  De- 
cember to  England,  leaving  behind  them 
forty-four  persons.  The  next  year  the 
ship  from  England  brought  the  news  of 
the  death  of  Sir  John  Popham,  late  Chief 
Justice  and  foremost  patron  of  this  un- 
successful expedition,  and  the  settlement 
was  finally  abandoned.  "There  were," 
says  Gorges,  "no  more  speeches  by  the 
northern  company  of  settling  any  other 
33 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

plantation  in  those  parts  for  a  long  time 
after."  It  is  recalled  merely  as  one  of  the 
steps  in  the  forward  movement  of  emigra- 
tion and  settlement  of  the  New  World. 

The  Jamestown  settlement  in  1607  was 
by  the  authority  and  under  the  control 
and  direction  of  that  first  or  Southern  or 
London  Company,  organized  under  the 
charter  of  James  I,  dated  April  10,  1606. 
It  may  be  proper,  perhaps,  in  this  connec- 
tion to  note  some  points  of  resemblance 
and  difference  which  it  presents  in  com- 
parison with  the  settlement  of  that  Pil- 
grim Company  which,  nearly  fourteen 
years  later,  left  England  under  the  same 
authority  and  the  same  charter. 

The  total  tonnage  of  the  three  little 
ships  which  left  England  on  January  1, 
1607,  for  the  Chesapeake  was  less  than  the 
tonnage  of  the  "Mayflower"  alone.  The 
" Susan  Constant"  was  of  the  burden  of  a 
hundred  tons,  the  "  Godspeed,"  forty  tons, 
and  the  "Discovery"  had  a  tonnage  of 
only  twenty  tons,  making  a  total  tonnage 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty,  as  compared 
34 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

with  the  "  Mayflower's  "  one  hundred  and 
eighty  tons.  The  number  of  passengers  on 
the  three  ships  was  substantially  the  same 
as  that  of  the  Mayflower  Company,  one 
hundred  and  five  Jamestown  colonists  and 
one  hundred  and  two  Plymouth  colonists. 
But  there  was  an  important  difference  be- 
tween these  two  companies;  neither  wife 
nor  mother  was  a  passenger  on  the  James- 
town ships,  while  the  Mayflower  Com- 
pany was  in  effect  the  migration  of  fami- 
lies, the  removal  of  homes,  and  "their 
hearths  as  well  as  their  altars  went  with 
them  on  the  voyage." 

The  losses  of  the  settlers  of  Virginia 
were  far  in  excess  of  those  sustained  by 
the  English  settlements  in  New  England. 
Famine,  pestilence,  and  Indian  massacre 
took  a  heavy  toll  of  life  from  those  early 
voyagers.  Within  four  months  from  the 
landing  at  Jamestown  nearly  half  of  the 
total  number  had  perished  by  disease  or 
Indian  attack.  The  winter's  storms  at 
Plymouth  were  more  merciful  than  the 
summer's  heat  in  Jamestown,  for  in  the 
35 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

four  months  from  the  landing  at  Plymouth 
only  forty-four  had  died.  Before  the  first 
year  had  passed  the  number  of  James- 
town settlers  had  been  reduced  to  forty. 
The  mortality  of  the  Virginia  colonists,  as 
stated  by  Dr.  Tyler,  was  extraordinary. 
Out  of  a  total  of  fourteen  thousand  emi- 
grants from  1607  to  1622,  only  nine  hun- 
dred and  eleven  survived  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1622.  The  estimates  of  Alexander 
Brown,  and  accepted  by  Dr.  Channing, 
are  much  less  extravagant  and  undoubt- 
edly more  accurate,  but  are  singularly 
impressive  as  to  the  price  paid  for  the  free- 
dom which  the  New  World  gave. 

-"From  1606  to  1625,"  says  Brown, 
"5649  emigrants  left  England  for  Vir- 
ginia, and  in  1624  only  1095  were  living." 
Out  of  twelve  hundred  emigrants  who 
sailed  from  England  in  1619  and  the  first 
three  months  in  1620,  one  thousand  died 
on  the  voyage  or  after  their  arrival  in  the 
Virginia  colonies.  Although  the  Virginia 
colonists  did  not  enjoy  the  right  or  privi- 
lege of  electing  their  governors  and  their 
36 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

form  of  government  was  in  many  respects 
much  less  democratic  than  that  of  Ply- 
mouth, it  is  a  fact  not  to  be  forgotten  that 
the  first  representative  legislative  assem- 
bly which  ever  met  in  America  was  con- 
vened on  July  30,  1619,  each  of  the  eleven 
boroughs  into  which  the  Virginia  colony 
was  then  divided  being  represented  by 
two  delegates. 

Before  the  Pilgrims,  then,  had  deter- 
mined to  seek  a  home  in  the  New  World, 
representative  government,  the  great  con- 
tribution to  the  science  of  government  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  was  firmly  estab- 
lished in  that  New  World  which  now 
furnishes  the  best  example  of  its  possibili- 
ties for  greatness  and  success. 

When  the  attention  of  the  members  of 
Robinson's  church  in  Leyden  was  directed 
towards  establishing  a  home  beyond  the 
seas  and  to  the  means  of  accomplishing 
that  undertaking,  there  were  north  of  the 
Spanish  settlement  at  St.  Augustine  only 
the  English  colony  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay 
and  the  James  River;  the  Dutch  trading- 
'  37 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

post  at  Manhattan  on  the  Hudson;  and 
the  French  settlements  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence and  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
—  the  three  strategic  points  on  the  At- 
lantic coast,  not  merely  for  their  practical 
advantages  of  defense,  but  for  their  un- 
limited possibilities  for  the  trade,  com- 
merce, and  enterprise  of  the  coming  years 
and  the  future  generations. 

But  at  the  time  that  the  Pilgrims  sailed 
from  England  there  was  no  harbor,  except 
at  those  three  points,  which  had  been  so 
carefully  explored,  mapped,  and  sounded 
as  the  harbor  at  Plymouth.  The  ships  of 
three  nations,  England,  France,  and  Hol- 
land, between  1600  and  1620,  had  visited 
what  is  now  Plymouth,  and  the  maps  or 
charts  of  the  voyages  and  the  relations  of 
these  expeditions,  as  told  by  the  naviga- 
tors and  explorers,  preserve  that  interest- 
ing part  of  America's  history. 

First  in  time  was  the  expedition  under 

command  of  Captain  Martin  Pring,  who 

sailed  from  Bristol  in  June,  1603,  with  two 

barks,  one  of  fifty  tons  called  the  "Speed- 

38 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

well,"  with  thirty  men  and  boys;  the 
other  named  the  "Discoverer,"  of  twenty- 
six  tons,  with  thirteen  men  and  boys. 
With  him  went  as  his  assistant  one  Robert 
Salterne,  who  had  been  with  Gosnold  in 
his  voyage  to  New  England  the  year  be- 
fore, and  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  the 
description  of  the  voyage.  The  story  is 
told  by  Purchas  in  the  fourth  volume  of 
his  "Pilgrims."  To  the  bay  of  Plymouth 
he  gave  the  name  of  Whitson  Bay,  in 
honor  of  that  John  Whitson,  then  mayor 
of  the  city  of  Bristol,  England,  and  one  of 
the  " Chief e  adventurers"  and  patrons  of 
his  expedition.  He  gives  a  full  description 
of  the  natives  and  of  the  plants,  trees, 
beasts,  fowls,  and  fish  which  he  found 
there.  The  wheat,  barley,  oats,  and  peas, 
and  sundry  sorts  of  garden  seeds,  though 
late,  soon  came  up  very  well,  "giving  cer- 
tain testimony  of  the  goodness  of  the  cli- 
mate and  of  the  soil."  With  the  sassafras, 
which  he  describes  as  a  plant  of  sovereign 
virtue  and  which  was  used  as  a  febrifuge 
and  as  a  specific  in  certain  diseases,  he 
*  39 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

loaded  his  small  bark  and  sent  her  home  to 
England.  Beasts  and  fowls  were  found  in 
great  number  and  variety,  and  "as  the 
land  is  full  of  God's  good  blessings,  so  is 
the  sea  replenished  with  great  abundance 
of  excellent  fish." 

One  curious  but  unimportant  fact 
seemed,  to  him  at  least,  worthy  of  re- 
membrance, that  he  had  taken  with  him 
from  Bristol  two  excellent  mastiffs  whose 
names  even  are  preserved,  "Foole"  and 
"Gallant,"  great  and  fearful,  "of  whom 
the  Indians  were  more  afraid  than  of 
twenty  of  our  men."  The  names  of  the 
dogs  live,  the  names  of  heroes  are  for- 
gotten. 

In  the  twenty-second  volume  of  Pie- 
ter  van  der  Aa's  Collection  of  Voyages 
published  in  Ley  den  in  1707,  is  given  a  pic- 
ture of  the  barricade  of  Pring  on  the  shore 
of  Plymouth  Bay,  in  which  was  kept  dil- 
igent watch  and  ward  for  the  "advertise- 
ment and  succor  of  the  men  while  they 
should  work  in  the  woods."  The  picture 
shows  the  wooded  shores,  the  barricade 
40 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

built  of  logs,  with  an  entrance  and  what 
may  be  two  kennels  on  either  side  for  the 
two  great  mastiffs,  some  Indians  armed 
with  bow  and  arrow,  others  dancing,  and 
in  the  forefront  the  figure  of  an  English- 
man with  his  musket  on  his  left  shoulder 
and  carrying  in  his  right  hand  the  rest 
from  which  it  was  fired. 

The  next  voyager  to  enter  Plymouth 
Harbor,  of  whose  expedition  we  have  a 
full  record,  is  that  of  Samuel  de  Cham- 
plain,  who,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1605,  en- 
tered the  little  bay,  now  known  as  "Ply- 
mouth Harbor."  He  says  that  some  of  the 
Indians  "begged  us  to  go  to  their  river. 
We  weighed  anchor  to  do  so,  but  were  un- 
able to  enter  on  account  of  the  small 
amount  of  water,  it  being  low  tide,  and 
were  accordingly  obliged  to  anchor  at  the 
mouth."  Champlain  went  ashore  and 
made  an  examination  of  the  river,  which 
to  him  appeared  only  as  -an  arm  of  water 
extending  a  short  distance  inland,  and 
"running  into  this  is  merely  a  brook,  not 
deep  enough  for  boats  except  at  full  tide." 
41 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

His  reference  here  is  possibly  to  the  Town 
Brook,  the  entrance  to  which  was  at  high 
tide  a  small  harbor,  used  as  late  as  the  last 
century  for  the  purpose  of  wintering  small 
vessels,  and  where  the  traces  of  the 
wharves  are  still  seen  to  which  the  rev- 
enue cutter  was  moored  as  late  as  the  War 
of  1812.  Champlain's  map,  which  ap- 
peared in  his  edition  of  his  voyages,  pub- 
lished in  1613,  shows  the  Gurnet  as  a 
wooded  point  at  the  entrance,  and  the 
two  islands  in  the  bay  "which  are  not 
seen  till  one  has  entered,  and  around 
which  it  is  almost  entirely  dry  at  low 
tide." 

Slafter,  in  his  edition  of  the  "Voyages 
of  Samuel  de  Champlain,"  published  by 
the  Prince  Society  says  in  a  note  at  vol.  n, 
page  78: 

This  delineation  removes  all  doubt  as  to  the 
missing  island  in  Plymouth  harbor,  and  shows 
the  incorrectness  of  the  theory  as  to  its  being 
Saquish  Head,  suggested  in  a  note  in  Young's 
Chronicles. 

I  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Slafter's  conclu- 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

sion,  for  it  seems  to  me  to  be  clear  that 
the  island  is  what  is  now  known  as  Sa- 
quish,  and  which,  within  the  recollection 
of  men  living  in  the  last  century,  was  at 
times  of  extreme  high  tide  or  storm  an 
island,  and  around  which  in  small  sloops 
the  fishermen  and  pilots  of  the  bay  had 
been  able  to  sail.  The  theory  that  it  was 
Saquish  is  also  supported  by  other  maps 
to  which  I  shall  hereafter  refer.  This  har- 
bor Champlain  named  the  "Port  du  Cap 
St.  Louis"  and  on  the  map  is  marked 
"Port  St.  Louis."  If  Champlain's  map  is 
accepted  as  an  accurate  description  of  the 
Plymouth  Harbor  at  that  time,  it  strongly 
supports  the  claim  that  Plymouth  beach 
was  formerly  wooded,  for  the  map  shows 
trees  upon  what  appears  to  be  the  beach. 
But  perhaps  of  more  interest  and  im- 
portance in  the  accuracy  of  its  description 
was  the  voyage  of  Adrian  Block  to  Ply- 
mouth in  the  spring  of  1614.  The  Dutch 
at  Manhattan  had  built  their  first  ship. 
They  had  fitly  named  it  the  "Onrust,"  or 
the  "Restless,"  and  had  entrusted  its  first 
*  43 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

voyage  to  the  experience  and  skill  of 
Adrian  Block  as  its  sailing  master.  This 
little  vessel  was  forty-four  and  one  half 
feet  long,  eleven  and  one  half  feet  wide, 
and  of  about  sixteen  tons  burden.  It  was 
not  the  first  decked  vessel  built  in  the 
United  States;  that  distinction  belongs  to 
the  "Virginia"  of  Sagadahoc. 

Block  sailed  along  the  shores  of  the  Con- 
necticut, passed  the  Vineyard  and  Nan- 
tucket,  rounded  the  Cape,  and  dropped 
anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Plymouth,  which 
he  called  "Crane  Bay,"  then  sailed  north- 
erly by  Foxhaven,  now  Boston,  to  Pye 
Bay,  probably  Nahant.  In  the  archives 
at  The  Hague  is  a  map  called  the  "Fig- 
urative Map,"  prepared  by  Block,  or 
from  data  furnished  by  him.  It  recog- 
nizes the  French  title  above  latitude  40° 
and  the  English  below  45°,  but  to  the 
territory  between  40°  and  45°  the  Dutch 
claim  title  and  gave  to  it  the  name  of 
"New  Netherland."  The  harbor  of  Ply- 
mouth and  the  Town  Brook  are  clearly 
shown,  the  position  of  the  Gurnet  well 
44 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

marked.  Two  significant  and  interesting 
points  are,  first,  two  islands  lying  inside 
the  Gurnet,  one  later  known  as  "Clark's 
Island"  where  the  Pilgrims  passed  the 
first  Sunday;  the  other,  what  is  now  the 
promontory  of  Saquish,  but  which  here 
appears  as  an  island,  confirming  the  de- 
scription of  Champlain  and  later  authori- 
ties, and  the  statements  of  the  old  pilots 
that  they  could  recall  when  at  certain 
stages  of  the  tide  Saquish  Point  was  sur- 
rounded by  water.  Secondly,  the  map 
shows  clearly  a  channel  making  of  Cape 
Cod  an  island  and  following  generally  the 
line  of  the  present  Cape  Cod  Canal. 
Probably  Block  did  not  sail  up  the  creek 
or  river  to  which  Bradford  refers  when 
he  writes  of  Manomet: 

Standing  on  the  sea  to  the  southward  of 
them,  in  to  which  by  another  creek  on  this 
side  they  would  carry  their  goods  and  then 
transport  them  over  land  to  their  vessel,  and 
so  avoid  the  compassing  of  Cape  Cod  and 
those  dangerous  shoals. 

Block  sailing  along  the  shore  to  the 
south  of  the  Cape  and  finding  the  mouth 

*  45 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

of  a  river  there,  and  then  passing  along 
the  interior  or  northern  line  of  the  Cape 
and  noting  another  river  or  creek  extend- 
ing into  the  land,  might  naturally  infer 
that  there  was  a  channel  or  river  from 
Cape  Cod  Bay  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  and  that 
the  Cape  was  an  island.  On  a  map  of  New 
England  by  John  Seller,  hydrographer  to 
the  King,  believed  to  be  printed  about 
1675,  there  appears  the  name  of  "Crane 
Bay,"  and  in  the  map  by  Pieter  van  der 
Aa  of  New  England,  as  described  by 
Smith  in  the  two  voyages  made  by  him  in 
1614  and  1615,  and  published  about  1707, 
we  also  find  the  names  "Crane  Bay"  and 
"Plymouth"  given  as  "Patuxet  als  New 
Plymouth."  In  a  map  of  the  coast  of  New 
England,  printed  probably  about  1721, 
at  or  near  Nauset  Bar  there  is  a  break 
through  Cape  Cod,  giving  to  the  end  of 
the  Cape  the  appearance  of  an  island. 

In  the  month  of  April,  1614,  Captain 
John  Smith  sailed  from  London  with  two 
ships  to  America.  The  purpose  of  the  ex- 
pedition was  in  part  to  engage  in  the 
46 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

whale  fishery  and  also  to  search  for  mines 
of  gold  and  copper.  They  were  unsuccess- 
ful in  securing  the  purposes  of  the  voyage, 
and  leaving  the  ships  to  be  employed  in 
the  cod  fishery,  Smith  with  eight  others 
ranged  the  coast  in  a  small  boat.  His  de- 
scription of  New  England,  printed  in 
1616,  makes  this  reference  to  Plymouth: 

Then  come  you  to  Accomack,  an  excellent 
good  harbor,  good  land;  and  no  want  of  any 
thing  to  industrious  people.  After  much 
kindness  upon  a  small  occasion  we  fought  also 
with  40  or  50  of  those,  (i.e.  natives);  though 
some  were  hurt  and  some  slain,  yet  within  an 
hour  after  they  became  friends. 

In  this  account  Smith  gives  the  name 
"Accomack"  to  Plymouth,  and  in  his 
map,  before  the  changes  made  by  Prince 
Charles,  Plymouth  was  so  named. 

Upon  his  return  to  England  he  pre- 
sented his  account  of  the  voyage  with  the 
map  to  Prince  Charles,  later  Charles  I  of 
England,  asking  His  Highness  to  be 
pleased  to  change  "  their  barbarous  names 
for  such  English  as  posterity  might  say 
IJrince  Charles  was  their  god  father."  On 
47 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Smith's  map  Prince  Charles,  therefore, 
changed  the  name  of  "Cape  Cod"  to 
"Cape  James,"  gave  in  place  of  the 
Indian  name  of  "Accomack"  the  name 
of  "Plymouth,"  and  twenty-nine  other 
places,  which  upon  Smith's  map  appeared 
for  the  most  part  with  their  Indian  names, 
Prince  Charles  renamed  with  English 
names.  This  map  of  Smith's  gives  no  de- 
tails of  Plymouth  Harbor  other  than  its 
latitude  and  relative  position  upon  the 
New  England  coast,  and  for  that  reason  is 
less  instructive  and  important  than  either 
the  Champlain  or  Block  map,  where  the 
coast-line,  islands,  points,  and  in  the 
Champlain  map  the  soundings,  are  clearly 
shown. 

Smith's  relation  of  his  voyages  to  New 
England  he  caused  to  be  printed  to  the 
number  of  two  or  three  thousand,  "One 
thousand  with  a  great  many  maps  both  of 
Virginia  and  New  England  I  presented  to 
30  of  the  chief  companies  in  London  at 
their  Halls."  His  contributions  to  the 
knowledge  and  settlement  of  the  New 
48 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

World  by  reason  of  these  voyages  of  ex- 
ploration and  discovery,  and  his  full  and 
complete  accounts  of  the  same,  should 
preserve  forever  his  name  in  grateful  re- 
membrance. His  love  for,  and  interest  in, 
Virginia  and  New  England  is  quaintly 
stated  in  a  fine  passage  in  which  he  says : 

By  that  acquaintance  I  haue  with  them,  I 
call  them  my  children;  for  they  haue  beene 
my  Wife,  my  Hawks,  Hounds,  my  Cards,  my 
Dice,  and  in  totall,  my  best  content,  as  indif- 
ferent to  my  heart  as  my  left  hand  [is]  to  my 
right. 

In  his  "True  Travels,  Adventures  and 
Observations,"  which  includes  a  continua- 
tion of  his  general  history  of  Virginia,  the 
Summer  Isles,  and  New  England  from 
1624  to  1629,  and  which  was  printed  in 
1630,  he  makes  this  reference  to  the  Pil- 
grim settlement,1  that  in  New  England 

Nothing  would  be  done  for  a  plantation  till 

about  some  hundred  of  your  Brownists  of 

England,  Amsterdam  and  Leyden  went  to 

New  Plymouth,  whose  humorous  ignorances 

caused  them  for  more  than  a  year  to  endure  a 

f  1  Arber,  p.  892. 

49 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

wonderful  deal  of  misery  with  an  infinite  pa- 
tience; saying  my  books  and  maps  were  much 
better  cheape  to  teach  them  than  myself e; 
many  others  have  used  the  like  good  hus- 
bandry that  have  paid  soundly  in  trying  their 
self-willed  conclusions. 

The  last  voyage  to  Plymouth  of  which 
we  have  any  record  before  the  arrival  of 
the  Pilgrims  was  by  Captain  Thomas 
Dermer,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  voy- 
age which  is  printed  in  the  first  volume  of 
"Purchases  Pilgrims."  In  that  descrip- 
tion of  his  voyage  along  the  coast  of  New 
England  to  Virginia,  no  definite  reference 
to  Plymouth  is  made.  In  "The  Brief  Re- 
lation of  the  Discovery  and  Plantation  of 
New  England  and  of  Sundry  Accidents 
therein  occurring,  from  the  year  of  our 
Lord  1607  to  this  present  1622,"  dedi- 
cated by  the  President  and  Council  of 
New  England  to  the  Prince's  Highness, 
Dermer  is  reported  as  having  said,  after 
leaving  his  ship  at  Monhegan,  that  "he 
coasted  the  shore  from  thence,  searching 
every  harbor  and  compassing  every  cape 
land  till  he  arrived  in  Virginia."  And 
50 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

Dermer  was  considered  by  the  Council  of 
Plymouth  as  the  original  discoverer  of  the 
coasts  lying  between  the  Hudson  and  the 
southern  shore  of  Massachusetts  on  the 
route  of  Long  Island  Sound. 

In  the  letter  from  Dermer  to  Samuel 
Purchas,  from  Captain  Martin's  planta- 
tion in  Virginia,  he  says  that  on  the  19th 
of  May,  1619,  in  an  open  pinnace  of  five 
tons  he  passed  along  the  coast  and  found 
"some  ancient  plantations  not  long  since 
populous,  now  utterly  void.  In  other 
places  a  remnant  remains  but  not  free  of 
sickness."  This  disease  he  identifies  as 
the  plague,  from  his  examination  of  the 
sores  of  some  of  the  natives  who  had  sur- 
vived, and  their  description  of  the  "spots 
of  such  as  usually  died." 

When  he  arrived  at  Patuxet  or  Ply- 
mouth, the  native  country  of  the  savage 
who  accompanied  him  as  guide  and  inter- 
preter, there  was  no  remnant  left  of  the 
native  tribe.  He  then  traveled  westward 
from  Plymouth  about  a  day's  journey  to 
what  is  now  Middleborough,  and  from 
51 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

there  sent  a  messenger  to  So  warns,  which 
the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  has 
identified  as  near  the  railroad  station  of 
Hampden  Meadows.  The  two  native 
kings,  probably  Massasoit  and  his  brother 
Quadaguina,  returned  with  the  messen- 
ger, and  in  the  conference  which  followed 
"my  savage  and  I  discoursed  unto  them, 
being  desirous  of  noveltie,  and  they  gave 
me  content  in  whatsoever  I  demanded." 
On  this  expedition  he  redeemed  two 
Frenchmen  who  three  years  before  had 
been  wrecked  on  Cape  Cod.  The  purpose 
of  his  expedition  accomplished,  he  sails 
from  Plymouth,  around  the  Cape,  through 
Long  Island  Sound,  to  Virginia. 

It  is  one  of  the  striking  circumstances 
connected  with  the  settlement  at  Ply- 
mouth that  this  was  the  place  selected  by 
the  last  voyager  along  the  coast  as  the 
best  locality  for  a  permanent  English  set- 
tlement. Gorges  says  that  Dermer  sent 
him  a  "journal  of  his  proceeding  with  the 
description  of  the  coast  all  along  as  he 
passed,"  and  in  that  relation  he  writes: 
52 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

I  will  first  begin  with  that  place  from 
whence  Squanto  or  Tisquantum  was  taken 
away,  which  on  Captain  Smith's  map  is  called 
Plymouth.  ...  I  would  that  the  first  planta- 
tion might  here  be  seated  if  there  come  to  the 
number  of  fifty  persons  or  upwards. 

The  Indian  who  accompanied  Dermer 
on  this  expedition  has  an  interesting  his- 
tory and  to  him  the  Pilgrim  Company 
later  owed  a  debt  which  can  hardly  be 
estimated.  His  name  is  variously  given  as 
"Tisquantum"  or  "Squanto,"  and  he  is 
thought  to  have  been  the  Indian  whom 
Gorges  refers  to  as  "Tasquantum,"  who 
returned  with  Captain  Weymouth  to  Lon- 
don in  1605  and  there  lived  for  three  years. 

Tisquantum,  or  Squanto,  as  Bradford 
calls  him,  and  whom  he  describes  as  "a 
native  of  this  place,  who  had  been  in  Eng- 
land and  could  speak  better  English  than 
Samoset,"  was  one  of  the  Indians  referred 
to  in  Smith's  account  of  his  first  voyage 
to  New  England  in  1614  with  two  ships. 
Smith  says  that  he  returned  to  England  in 
the  bark  within  six  months  after  his  de- 
parture with  a  lot  of  furs,  train  oils,  and 
53 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

fish,  leaving  the  other  ship  to  fit  for  Spain 
with  dry  fish,  but  that  the  master,  one 
Thomas  Hunt,  "betrayed  four  and  twenty 
of  the  savages  aboard  his  ship  and  most 
dishonestly  and  inhumanly,  for  their  kind 
usage  of  me  and  all  our  men,  carried  them 
to  Malago  and  there,  for  a  little  private 
gain,  sold  those  silly  saluages  for  Rials  of 
Eight:  but  this  vile  act  kept  him  ever 
after  from  any  more  employment  in  those 
parts." 

Rescued  from  slavery  in  Spain  by  some 
kindly  priests,  Squanto  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land and  while  there  lived  with  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Newfoundland  company,  who 
also  held  the  office  of  treasurer,  a  mer- 
chant by  the  name  of  John  Slanie,  who 
lived  in  Cornhill.  During  Dermer's  visit 
to  Newfoundland  during  the  years  1616- 
18,  he  saw  Tisquantum.  From  Newfound- 
land Dermer  returned  to  England  and 
was  again  sent  to  Newfoundland  on  a 
fishing  voyage.  From  Newfoundland  he 
starts  for  Virginia,  taking  with  him 
Squanto,  making  the  stop  at  Patuxet, 
54 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

which  has  been  above  described,  and 
leaving  there  Squanto,  the  last  survivor 
of  that  tribe  which  had  roamed  the 
woods,  tilled  the  fields,  fished  the  streams, 
camped  upon  the  shore,  loved,  feasted, 
fought,  and  died,  alone  with  the  empty 
wigwams,  the  untilled  fields,  and  the  un- 
marked graves  of  his  people,  and  there  he 
waits  the  arrival  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Tell  me,  man  of  military  science,  tell 
me,  student  of  the  voyages  of  the  naviga- 
tors, explorers,  and  discoverers  of  the  New 
World,  where  on  that  wide-flung  seacoast- 
line  along  the  Atlantic  could  a  little  band 
of  Englishmen  in  December,  1620,  have 
found  another  harbor  where  during  the 
twenty  years  before  their  landing  the 
ships  of  three  nations  had  anchored,  and 
the  Cross  of  St.  George,  the  white  flag  of 
France,  the  orange,  white,  and  blue  flag 
of  Holland,  had  been  planted  on  its  en- 
circling shores,  or  where  the  coast-line 
had  been  so  carefully  skirted,  the  harbor 
so  thoroughly  mapped  and  chartered, 
sounded  and  named,  as  in  that  sheltered 
*  55 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

bay  of  Plymouth?  Where  else  lay  the 
waiting  fields  once  cultivated,  now  de- 
serted by  the  aboriginal  proprietors? 
Where  else  in  safety  could  the  simple 
homes  of  the  new  settlers  have  been 
erected,  where  the  Indian  tribe  which 
once  lived  there  had  been  removed  by 
pestilence,  and  only  a  single  survivor  of 
the  tribe  remained,  than  on  that  shore 
where  the  Rock  lay  waiting  for  Pilgrim 
feet  to  press  and  make  immortal?  And 
where  else  from  Labrador  to  the  Gulf 
could  that  little  company  of  Englishmen 
have  found  a  friendly  Indian,  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  his  tribe,  who  had  lived  in  Lon- 
don for  many  a  weary  month,  had  passed 
a  lonely  figure  up  and  down  its  busy 
streets  and  grown  familiar  with  the  Eng- 
lish language  and  English  life  and  customs, 
to  become  their  guide,  interpreter,  and 
friend,  alike  familiar  with  his  native  land 
and  theirs,  ready  and  equipped  to  show 
them  the  way  to  escape  alike  the  perils 
of  famine  and  of  the  savage  foe,  and  give 
them  his  rights  to  those  fields  and  homes? 
56 


PLYMOUTH  BEFORE  THE  PILGRIMS 

Whether  you  call  it  a  coincidence 
merely,  or  whether  you  regard  it,  as  the 
pious  annalist  did,  a  marvelous  interposi- 
tion of  a  wonder-working  Providence,  the 
happy  presence  of  that  friendly  Indian  in 
their  new  home  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able events  in  human  history. 

This  was  Plymouth  before  the  Pilgrims: 
which  they  were  hereafter  to  hold,  with 
all  the  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities 
of  Englishmen  under  a  title  not  only  the 
broadest  known  to  the  English  law,  but 
also,  in  a  special  way  for  them,  the  most 
fortunate  and  the  most  useful. 

"Here  on  its  Rock,  and  on  its  sterile  soil, 
Began  the  kingdom  not  of  kings  but  men; 
Began  the  making  of  the  world  again." 


II 

THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

I  HAVE  considered  in  the  former  lecture 
those  early  voyages  of  exploration  and 
discovery  which  antedated  or  determined 
the  fitness  of  Plymouth  as  a  place  for  the 
settlement  of  an  English  colony  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  also  some  of  the  influ- 
ences, political  and  geographical,  which 
had  fixed  the  prior  settlements  under  the 
English,  Dutch,  and  French  flags  at  the 
three  strategic  points  for  colonization  in 
the  New  World  north  of  Florida,  and  I 
propose  now  to  present  some  of  the  social 
and  economic  considerations  and  religious 
influences  which  inspired,  shaped,  and 
directed  the  Pilgrim  migration. 

That  religious  movement  in  England  to 
which  has  been  given  different  names  by 
its  friends  and  its  enemies,  but  which 
more  accurately  may  be  defined  as 
the  Independent  Movement,  and  which 
profoundly  influenced  the  Pilgrims  of 
58 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

Scrooby,  Leyden,  and  Plymouth,  came  as 
a  natural  and  almost  inevitable  result 
from  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Eng- 
lish and  its  publication  for  general  circula- 
tion in  that  language. 

The  great  body  of  the  English  Bible 
was  given  to  the  English  nation  by  Tyn- 
dale  in  manuscript,  and  the  Genevan  Bi- 
ble, which  the  Pilgrims  used,  published  in 
1557-60,  is  the  publication  of  the  transla- 
tions of  William  Tyndale  and  Myles  Cov- 
erdale,  first  printed  under  the  name  of  the 
"Matthews  Bible"  in  1537.  Erasmus 
(1467-1536),  learned  and  tolerant,  to 
whom  Tyndale  looked  not  only  as  a  true 
reformer,  but  also  as  the  great  light  and 
guide  of  the  age,  was  the  first  to  give  ex- 
pression to  the  hope  that  the  Bible  might 
be  translated  into  the  languages  of  all  peo- 
ple, when  he  so  finely  said: 

I  wish  the  Gospels  were  translated  into  the 
languages  of  all  people,  that  they  might  be 
read  and  known  not  only  by  the  Scotch  and 
Irish  and  the  English,  but  even  by  the  Turks 
and  the  Saracens.  I  wish  that  the  husband- 
man might  sing  parts  of  them  at  his  plough; 

59 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

that  the  weaver  might  warble  them  at  his 
shuttle;  that  the  traveler  may  with  their  nar- 
ration beguile  the  weariness  of  the  way. 

And  Tyndale  but  followed  in  his  footsteps 
when  he  said  to  a  critic: 

If  God  spare  my  life  ere  many  years  I  will 
cause  a  boy  that  driveth  a  plough  to  know 
more  of  the  Scriptures  than  thou  dost. 

The  realization  of  his  hopes  or  dreams 
made  it  necessary  no  longer  to  present  the 
oracles  of  God  in  a  dead  language,  and  to 
make  their  interpretation  the  monopoly 
of  a  priestly  class.  But  not  all  the  ad- 
vanced thinkers  of  the  day  went  as  far, 
for  even  Sir  Thomas  More,  whose  name 
his  "Utopia"  will  always  preserve,  be- 
lieved that  the  copies  of  the  English  Bible 
should  be  held  at  the  discretion  of  the 
bishop,  to  be  given  only  to  those  whom  he 
should  determine  to  be  "honest,  sad  and 
virtuous." 

But  if  the  Bible  itself  ought  not  be 

given  to  the  people  for  their  reading  and 

study,  still  less  could  the  commentaries 

upon  its  text  be  printed  without  a  license, 

60 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

as  many  a  publisher  and  even  Brewster 
himself  found  to  his  cost.  Those  who  be- 
lieved that  the  Church  should  have  a  form 
of  organization  less  formal  and  minute 
than  in  the  then  existing  organization  of 
the  Church  of  England  found  in  the  texts 
in  the  Genevan  version,  and  in  its  side 
notes,  the  authority  for  such  officers  as 
pastors  or  prophets,  teachers,  elders,  dea- 
cons, widows  or  helpers,1  and  whose  du- 
ties Robinson  clearly  defined. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury the  English  people  legally  were  all  in- 
cluded within  the  bounds  of  the  Church 
of  England.  Practically  there  were  also  in 
England  those  who  still  adhered  to  the 
Catholic  faith  of  their  fathers,  and  the 
Protestant  Nonconformists,  under  the  va- 
rious names  of  Separatists,  Independents, 
and  Baptists.  The  statutes  of  England 
then  provided  for  imprisonment  without 
bail  for  those  who  obstinately  refused  to 
attend  church  service  or  advisedly  per- 
suaded others  to  forbear  attendance,  or 
1  Cor.  xn,  28.  1  Tim.  v,  17.  Romans  xii,  6-8. 
61 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

to  receive  the  Communion,  or  who  were 
present  at  any  unlawful  assemblies  or 
meetings  under  color  of  any  exercises  of 
religion  contrary  to  the  law  and  statutes, 
and  imposed  the  further  penalties  that 
the  convicted  offender,  if  he  did  not  con- 
form and  submit  within  three  months, 
should  depart  from  the  realm,  or  if  he  re- 
fuse to  do  so  or  returned  to  the  realm, 
should  be  deemed  a  felon,  and  the  penalty 
was  death  without  benefit  of  clergy. 

The  famous  "Millenary  Petition"  of 
1603,  signed  by  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
ministers,  and  representing  the  views  of 
a  thousand,  expressed  no  dissatisfaction 
with  the  essential  doctrines  of  the  English 
Church,  but  only  with  certain  of  its  rites 
and  ceremonies,  and  asked  that  in  the 
future  the  petitioners  should  not  be  re- 
quired to  subscribe  except  to  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  and  to  the  Act  of  Suprem- 
acy. 

To  prove  that  the  enforcement  of  the 
English  law  bore  harshly  upon  the  non- 
conforming  men  and  women  holding  the 
62 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

ideas  of  church  polity  which  the  members 
of  the  Pilgrim  Church  adopted,  there  is  no 
occasion  to  mention  other  cases  than  those 
cited  by  Bradford  in  his  "Dialogue," 
where  he  enumerated  six  who  were  pub- 
licly executed  besides  such  as  died  in 
prison,  among  them  Henry  Barrow,  John 
Greenwood,  and  John  Penry,  and  "many 
others  who  have  been  condemned  and 
brought  to  the  gallows,  and  have  been  re- 
prieved and  banished,  some  of  whom  we 
have  known  and  often  spoken  with."  He 
refers  to  four  who  in  the  year  1604  were 
forced  to  adjure  the  land  by  oath  never  to 
return,  and  to  some  seventeen  or  eighteen 
that  had  died  in  the  London  prisons  prior 
to  the  year  1592,  besides  those  who  in 
other  parts  of  the  land  have  perished 
by  cold,  hunger,  or  "noisomnes  of  the 
prison,"  and  also  to  the  petition  of  sixty 
persons  committed  without  bail  to  the 
prisons  of  London,  and  "what  numbers 
since  those  who  have  been  put  into  com- 
pulsory banishment  and  other  hard  suffer- 
ings as  loss  of  goods,  friends,  and  long  and 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

hard  imprisonments,  under  which  many 
have  died,  it  is  so  well  known  that  it 
would  make  up  a  volume  to  rehearse 
them." 

I  refer  to  this  persecution  because  of  a 
suggestion  in  a  recent  book  that  the  treat- 
ment of  the  Scrooby  Congregation,  as 
shown  from  the  records  of  the  Ecclesiasti- 
cal Commission  of  the  Province  of  York, 
was  far  from  severe.  But  I  think  it  will  be 
found  upon  examination  that  the  severity 
of  the  penalty  for  nonconformity  and  the 
reported  cases  where  the  severe  penalty 
had  been  imposed,  and  also  the  fact  that 
the  little  congregation  which  assembled 
in  the  Manor  House  in  Scrooby  were  all 
liable  to  these  penalties,  when  coupled 
with  the  suffering  and  distress  which  they 
endured  in  their  efforts  to  leave  England 
for  Holland,  abundantly  justified  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  due  to  persecution, 
suffered  or  feared,  that  they  sought  free- 
dom to  worship  God  in  the  freer  air  of 
Amsterdam  and  Ley  den. 

I  need  not  repeat  in  detail  the  story  so 
64 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

admirably  told  by  Bradford  in  his  history 
of  the  meeting  of  the  little  company  in  the 
Manor  House  of  the  Bishop  in  Scrooby, 
where  Brewster  lived  and  held,  until  the 
last  of  September,  1607,  the  position  of 
postmaster.  It  is  obvious  that  these  little 
villages  of  Scrooby  and  Austerfield  could 
have  furnished  but  a  small  part  of  the  Pil- 
grim emigrants  to  Holland;  in  fact  there 
are  only  two  of  the  Pilgrim  Company  of 
whom  it  can  be  said  with  certainty  that 
they  came  from  either  of  those  two  towns, 
namely,  Brewster  of  Scrooby,  and  Brad- 
ford of  Austerfield,  but  the  meeting-place 
was  at  Scrooby,  and  the  people,  as  Brad- 
ford describes  them,  "were  of  sundry 
towns  and  villages,  some  of  Nottingham- 
shire, some  of  Lincolnshire,  and  some  of 
Yorkshire."  Morton  in  his  "New  Eng- 
land's Memorial"  fixes  the  date  of  the 
organization  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  at 
Scrooby  in  1602,  but  it  is  probable  that 
he  must  have  referred  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  church  at  Gainsborough,  for 
the  numerous  references  to  the  Pilgrim 
65 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Church  by  Bradford  and  Winslow,  and 
the  dates  at  which  they  fix  the  movement, 
show  that  it  could  not  have  been  earlier 
than  1606,  which  date  is  the  commonly 
accepted  date  of  the  beginning  of  this 
church. 

Eight  miles  north  from  Scrooby  is  Bab- 
worth,  where  the  Reverend  Richard  Clyf- 
ton,  the  Rector  and  later  the  Reformist 
minister,  preached,  and  who  was  for  a 
time  to  be  an  early  leader  in  the  Pilgrim 
Church  and  colleague  with  Robinson  at 
Scrooby.  Twelve  miles  east  of  Scrooby  is 
Gainsborough  where  the  Reverend  John 
Smith  came  in  1606.  Smith  later  became 
one  of  the  Separatists  or  Brownist  minis- 
ters in  Amsterdam,  and  pressed  to  the  ex- 
treme conclusion  that  tenet  of  Brownism 
that  the  Church  of  England  was  an  utterly 
false  and  abominable  church,  and  all  its 
ordinances  null  and  void,  which  divided 
the  Separatists  in  Holland.  He  held  that 
"the  separation  must  ever  go  back  to 
England  or  go  forward  to  true  Baptism. 
All  that  shall  in  time  to  come  separate 
66 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

from  England  must  separate  from  the 
Baptism  of  England." 

Clyfton  and  Smith,  as  well  as  Brewster 
and  Robinson,  were  men  who  had  been 
educated  in  the  University  at  Cambridge, 
scholarly  and  pious  leaders  of  this  Inde- 
pendent Movement.  They  are  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  "Brownists,"  taking  that 
name  from  Robert  Browne,  who  also  was 
a  Cambridge  man,  and  some  time  in 
the  years  between  1580-90  had  been  a 
preacher  at  Norwich.  Browne's  attacks 
on  the  bishops,  his  advocacy  of  the  duty  of 
separation  from  the  Church  of  England, 
and  of  the  right  to  organize  these  distinct 
congregations,  had  cost  him  dear.  As  he 
says,  he  had  "been  committed  to  32  pris- 
ons, in  some  of  which  he  could  not  see  his 
hand  at  noon  day." 

The  term  "Brownists"  was  always 
used  by  the  opponents  of  the  Pilgrim 
Church  as  a  term  of  reproach,  and  the  Pil- 
grims deeply  resented  its  use  for  Browne 
was  believed  to  have  recanted  the  opin- 
ions which  he  had  often  so  violently  ex- 
67 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

pressed  by  accepting  a  Church  of  Eng- 
land living  in  Northamptonshire  and  re- 
siding in  the  parsonage  till  his  death  in 
1630. 

The  term  "Separatists,"  as  a  descrip- 
tive word  merely,  is  sufficiently  accurate, 
but  the  true  name,  as  I  believe,  for  these 
independent  congregational  churches  is 
"Independent."  It  is  a  curious  fact  that 
the  word  "Independent"  is  not  found  in 
the  Bible  nor  in  Shakespeare.  It  first  ap- 
pears as  descriptive  of  a  church  as  early  as 
1610  in  a  book  which  the  Reverend  Henry 
Jacob  had  published  in  Leyden,  entitled 
"The  Divine  Beginning  and  Institution 
of  Christ's  True,  Visible  or  Ministerial 
Church,"  where  he  says,  "All  which  were 
so  many  proper  and  distinct  churches  in 
those  times  and  independent  one  of  an- 
other," and  in  a  later  work,  published  in 
1611,  he  says,  "Each  congregation  is  an 
entire  and  independent  body-politic,  en- 
dued with  power  immediately  under  and 
from  Christ." 

Henry  Jacob  was  a  graduate  of  Oxford, 
68 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

the  minister  for  several  years  to  the  con- 
gregation at  Middelburg,  and  spent  a 
few  months  during  1610  in  Ley  den.  In 
1616  he  returned  to  England  and  organ- 
ized a  church  in  Southwark,  which  is 
reputed  to  be  the  mother  church  of  the 
Independent  denomination.  But  the  Bap- 
tist Church  established  by  Thomas  Hel- 
wys  in  London,  on  his  return  from  Hol- 
land in  1613,  was  distinctly  Independent 
in  polity  and  prior  in  time.  Apparently 
the  word  "Independent"  was  first  used  in 
Holland  and  the  English  Separatists  in 
Holland  worked  out  not  only  the  theory 
and  the  form,  but  the  term  "Independ- 
ent." 

Robinson,  in  his  "Apologia"  (1619),  at 
page  16,  defines  the  true  Church  as  "iota, 
Integra  &  perfecta  Ecclesia,  ex  his  parti- 
bus  constans  immediate  &  independenter." 
Perhaps  the  importance  which  Robinson 
attached  to  the  term  "Independent"  is 
best  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  as  there 
was  no  Latin  word  even  for  "independ- 
ent," he  coined  the  word  "independenter" 
69 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

for  the  first  edition  of  his  "Apology" 
which  was  written  and  printed  in  Latin. 
The  whole  sentence  in  the  English  edition 
(1625),  is  as  follows: 

Neither  was  Peter  or  Paul  more  one,  whole, 
entire,  and  perfect  man,  consisting  of  their 
parts  essential  and  integral,  without  relation 
unto  other  men,  than  is  a  particular  congrega- 
tion, rightly  instituted  and  ordered,  a  whole, 
entire,  and  perfect  church  immediately  and 
independently,  in  respect  of  other  churches, 
under  Christ  alone. 

A  learned  student  of  New  England's  his- 
tory wrote  me  some  years  ago,  "I  know  of 
no  nobler  sentence  in  literature  or  law." 
John  Robinson  must  be  recognized  as  the 
true  founder  of  Independency  or  Congre- 
gationalism. The  basis  of  the  Pilgrim 
Church  in  Leyden  and  Plymouth  was  the 
principles  and  polity  of  which  Robinson 
was  the  most  eminent,  the  best  known, 
and  the  ablest  exponent.  His  views  as  ex- 
pressed in  his  later  writings  were  adopted 
as  the  unquestioned  polity  of  that  church 
which  claims  him  as  its  religious  teacher, 
preacher,  and  leader. 
70 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

The  translation  of  the  Bible  into  our 
English  tongue,  as  has  been  said, 

opened  to  one  and  all,  simple  and  great,  poor 
and  rich,  learned  and  ignorant,  the  treasure 
house  of  the  Divine  wisdom :  it  gave  to  each  in 
the  daily  round  of  labor  and  care,  as  well  as  in 
the  supreme  and  testing  moments  of  life,  an 
equal  and  unstinted  share  in  the  teachings 
which  inspire,  the  consolations  which  soothe, 
the  faith  which  can  move  mountains,  the 
hope  which  endures  to  the  end. 

It  was  an  inevitable  conclusion  from 
that  movement  which  placed  the  Bible  in 
the  hands  of  English-speaking  men  and 
women,  whose  duty  and  faith  required 
them  to  "search  the  Scriptures,"  and  who 
believed  with  Robinson  that  there  was 
more  Truth  and  Light  yet  to  come  out 
of  His  Holy  Word,  that  the  Protestants 
would  divide  into  sects,  by  reason  of  the 
special  emphasis  which  each  leader  might 
place  on  some  text  in  the  Bible.  An 
independent  church  was  the  necessary 
result.  "The  foundation  of  our  New 
England  Plantations,"  says  Winslow, 
"was  not  laid  upon  Schisme,  division  or 
71 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Separation,  but  upon  love,  peace  and  holi- 
ness." 

Their  faith  was  not  negative,  and  did 
not  consist  in  the  condemning  of  others, 
but  in  the  edifying  of  themselves;  they 
did  not  require  of  any  of  their  members 
"in  the  confession  of  their  faith  that  they 
either  renounce  or  in  one  word  contest 
with  the  Church  of  England,  whatsoever 
the  world  clamours  of  us  this  way.  Our 
faith  is  founded  upon  the  writings  of  the 
prophets  and  apostles  in  which  no  men- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England  is  made."  1 
Upon  this  deep  foundation  they  built 
their  independent  church,  with  hope  and 
confidence  that  the  gates  of  Hell  could  not 
prevail  against  it. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true,  as  Winslow 
frankly  confessed,  that  Robinson  was 
"more  rigid  in  his  course  and  way  at  first 
than  towards  his  latter  end."  In  his  fare- 
well sermon  to  that  little  company  of  Pil- 
grims on  their  departure  to  begin  the 
great  work  of  Plantation  in  New  England, 

1  Works  of  John  Johnson,  Ashton,  vol.  m,  p.  63. 
72 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

his  breadth  and  liberality  of  vision  were 
admirably  and  definitely  shown,  and  his 
position  and  their  duty  clearly  stated.  He 
instructed  and  exhorted  them,  "If  God 
should  reveal  anything  to  them  [us]  by 
any  other  instrument  of  his,  to  be  as  ready 
to  receive  it  as  ever  they  [we]  were  to  re- 
ceive any  truth  by  his  ministry."  Again 
he  reminded  them  of  their  Church  Cove- 
nant, the  basis  of  their  Church  Fellowship 
under  and  in  accordance  with  which  they 
covenanted  with  God  and  one  another 
"to  receive  whatever  light  or  truth  shall 
be  made  known  to  them  from  his  written 
Word."  That  written  Word,  illumined  by 
the  radiance  of  all  that  the  past  had 
brought,  and  to  shine  forth  yet  more 
clearly  in  the  further  light  the  future  had 
in  store,  was  their  final  authority  and 
guide.  To  the  leaders  of  the  Pilgrims 
and  those  others  at  least  of  the  May- 
flower Company  who  had  lived  in  Leyden 
and  shared  the  teachings  of  their  great 
preacher,  teacher,  and  leader,  the  name  of 
"Brownist"  was  a  "nickname  and  brand 
'  73 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

to  make  Religion  and  the  possession  of  it 
odious." 

To  call  them  "Separatists"  was  an  "as- 
persion"; their  church  was  a  "free  cor- 
poration spiritual,"  and  that  way  in  which 
their  feet  were  firmly  planted  was  the  In- 
dependent or  Congregational  way. 

What  in  brief  was  the  dogma,  what  the 
polity  of  this  Pilgrim  Church?  Fortu- 
nately there  is  conclusive  evidence  on 
both  of  these  points.  William  Perkins 
(1558-1602),  a  Cambridge  graduate,  a 
learned  and  scholarly  divine,  whose  writ- 
ings in  Robinson's  time  were  scarcely  less 
authoritative  than  those  of  Hooker  and 
Calvin,  had  gathered  into  six  principles 
the  foundation  of  the  Christian  Religion : 

The  |  Foundation  of  |  Christian  Religion: 
|  gathered  into  sixe  |  Principles 

And  it  is  to  be  learned  of  ignorant  people,  that 

they  may  be  fit  to  heare  Sermons  with  profit, 

and  to  receive  the  Lord's  Supper  with  comfort. 

Printed  for  J.  L.  and  I.  L.  1600. 

Brewster's  library  of  some  four  hundred 
volumes  contained  thirteen  volumes  of 

74 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

Perkins's  writings,  more  than  of  any  other 
theologian.  In  the  inventory  of  Brewster's 
library  are  named  "two  little  chata- 
chisms,"  which  Dr.  Dexter  thought  were 
probably  the  catechisms  which  John  Rob- 
inson published  at  Leyden  for  the  use  of 
the  Church,  being  an  Appendix  to  Mr. 
Perkins's  six  principles  of  Christian  re- 
ligion. It  is  more  probable  I  think  that 
these  catechisms  were  copies  of  that  16mo 
edition  of  Perkins's  six  principles,  printed 
in  1606.  These  six  principles  as  stated  and 
explained  by  Perkins,  are  as  follows: 

1st.  There  is  one  God,  Creator  and  Govern- 
our  of  all  things,  distinguished  into 
the  Father,  the  Sonne,  and  the  Holy- 
Ghost. 

2nd.  All  men  are  wholly  corrupted  with  sin 
through  Adams  fall,  and  so  are  be- 
come slaves  of  Satan,  and  guilty  of 
eternal  damnation. 

3rd.  Jesus  Christ,  the  eternal  Son  of  God, 
being  made  man,  by  his  Death  upon 
the  Cross,  and  by  his  Righteous- 
ness hath  perfectly,  alone  by  him- 
self, accomplished  all  things  that 
are  needful  for  the  salvation  of  man- 
-  kind. 

75 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

4th.  A  man  of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit, 
by  faith  alone  apprehending  and 
applying  Christ  with  all  his  merits 
unto  himself,  is  justified  before  God, 
and  sanctified. 

5th.  Faith  commeth  only  by  the  preaching 
of  the  Word,  and  increaseth  dayly 
by  it;  as  also  by  the  administration 
of  the  Sacraments,  and  Prayer. 

6th.  All  men  shall  rise  again  with  their  own 
bodies;  to  the  last  Judgment:  which 
being  ended,  the  godly  shall  pos- 
sesse  the  Kingdome  of  Heaven;  but 
Unbeleevers  and  Reporbates  shaH 
be  in  Hell  tormented  with  the  Devil 
and  his  Angels  for  ever. 

They  are  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the 
Fall  of  Man  through  Adam,  Salvation 
by  Jesus,  Justification  by  Faith,  Faith 
through  the  Preaching  of  the  Word  and  by 
the  sacraments  and  prayer,  and  Resurrec- 
tion of  the  body,  with  heaven  for  the  godly 
and  hell  for  the  unbelievers  and  reprobates. 
Mr.  Robinson's  Appendix  or  Catechism 
contains  forty-six  questions  and  answers. 
The  church  is  defined  as  — 

A  company  of  faithful  and  holy  people,  with 
their  seed,  called  by  the  WTord  of  God  into 

76 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

public  covenant  with  Christ  and  amongst 
themselves,  for  mutual  fellowship  in  the  use  of 
all  the  means  of  God's  glory  and  their  salvation. 

And  the  only  limitation  of  its  number  is 
that  it  shall  not  exceed  such  a  number  as 
may  ordinarily  meet  together  in  one  place 
for  the  worship  of  God.  The  present  offi- 
cers of  ministry  in  the  church  are  the 
pastor: 

1.  The  pastor  [exhorter],  to  whom  is  given 
the  gift  of  wisdom  for  exhortation.  2.  The 
teacher,  to  whom  is  given  the  gift  of  knowl- 
edge for  doctrine.  3.  The  governing  elder, 
who  is  to  rule  with  diligence.  4.  The  deacon, 
who  is  to  administer  the  holy  treasure  with 
simplicity.  5.  The  widow  or  deaconess,  who 
is  to  attend  the  sick  and  impotent  with  com- 
passion and  cheerfulness. 

And  the  church,  being  "a  free  corporation 
spiritual,"  is  to  choose  her  ministers  and 
servants  unto  whom  she  is  to  give  wages. 
The  outward  works  of  the  church  are 
six  in  number,  defined  as: 

1.  Prayer.  2.  The  reading  and  opening  of 
the  Word.  3.  The  sacraments.  4.  Singing  of 
Psalms.  5.  Censures.  6.  Contribution  to  the 
necessities  of  the  saints. 

77 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

This  was  the  Pilgrim's  creed,  this  his  sim- 
ple form  of  church  government  and  order. 

The  time  came  when,  in  the  opinion  of 
their  wise  leaders,  it  was  necessary  for  the 
believers  in  independency  to  seek  a  secure 
refuge  under  another  than  the  English 
flag.  There  were  then  in  Holland  in 
the  city  of  Amsterdam  the  ancient  Eng- 
lish exile  Church,  a  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  possibly  the  Gainsborough 
Church,  which  under  the  Reverend  John 
Smith  went  to  Holland  about  the  same 
time  as  the  Pilgrim  Church.  Both  Smith 
and  Robinson  were  at  Amsterdam  before 
the  17th  of  October,  1608,  for  they  were 
described  in  Bishop  Hall's  Epistles  as 
"the  ring-leaders  of  the  late  separation" 
and  at  Amsterdam.  At  the  time  of  the 
Pilgrim  migration  there  was  no  Separatist 
church  at  Leyden. 

These  Nonconformists  in  the  towns  and 
villages  of  Lincolnshire,  Nottinghamshire, 
and  Yorkshire  knew  and  appreciated  the 
dangers  which  the  exercise  of  their  beliefs 
and  the  practice  of  their  faith  imposed 
78 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

upon  them.  Prosecutions  and  persecu- 
tions some  had  known,  and  all  had  feared. 
Some  by  bitter  experience  learned  the 
misery  of  an  English  prison,  to  others  its 
hardships  were  an  ever  present  danger, 
and  yet  under  the  provisions  of  existing 
law  it  was  impossible  for  the  family  to 
migrate  without  a  license  from  the  au- 
thorities. To  remain  or  to  go  was  alike 
perilous  and  disastrous. 

The  first  attempt  was  made  to  sail  from 
Boston  in  a  ship  which  they  had  hired  for 
the  purpose,  but  the  master  betrayed  to 
the  authorities  their  intended  departure. 
They  were  seized,  searched,  stripped,  and 
imprisoned.  After  a  month  had  passed 
the  greater  part  were  dismissed,  but  seven, 
the  principal  men  of  the  company,  were 
kept  in  prison  and  bound  over  to  the  as- 
sizes, and  among  them  William  Brews ter. 

The  next  year,  1608,  another  attempt 
was  made.  Arrangements  were  concluded 
with  the  master  of  a  Dutch  ship  to  meet 
them  at  some  port  between  Grimsby  and 
Hull,  where  there  was  a  large  common,  re- 
'  79 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

mote  from  any  town,  and  a  convenient 
creek  where  the  vessel  could  lie.  Some  of 
the  party  with  the  baggage  sailed  down 
the  river  Trent,  which  emptied  into  the 
sea  at  a  distance  of  twenty-two  miles  from 
Hull,  while  the  men  walked  across  country 
to  the  agreed  point  of  meeting.  By  the 
time  the  first  boatload  reached  the  ship, 
the  whole  country  was  raised  and  a  com- 
pany of  horsemen  and  footmen,  fully 
armed,  were  seen  marching  rapidly  to  in- 
tercept them.  The  prudent  Dutchman 
weighed  anchor,  hoisted  sail,  and  his 
vessel  with  only  the  first  boat-load  of 
emigrants  soon  disappeared  below  the 
horizon.  It  is  a  painful  picture  which 
Bradford  graphically  draws  of  the  misery 
of  the  women  and  children  who  were  left 
on  the  shore  as  the  ship  departed  bear- 
ing the  husbands  and  the  fathers. 

There  seems  to  have  been  after  that  no 
united  effort  to  get  across  to  Holland,  but, 
in  spite  of  opposition  and  after  great  diffi- 
culties, all  got  over,  some  at  one  time  and 
some  at  another;  some  in  one  place,  and 
80 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

some  in  another;  all  to  meet  again  with  no 
small  rejoicing  in  their  destined  haven, 
the  port  of  Amsterdam. 

"  Then  twelve  slow  years  in  Holland  —  changing 

years  — 

Strange  ways  of  life  —  strange  voices  in  their  ears; 
The  growing  children  learning  foreign  speech; 
And  growing,  too,  within  the  heart  of  each 
A  thought  of  further  exile  —  of  a  home 
In  some  far  land  —  a  home  for  life  and  death 
By  their  hands  built,  in  equity  and  faith." 

But  Amsterdam  could  not  long  remain 
their  home.  The  dissensions  in  that  Eng- 
lish church  into  which  they  had  been  re- 
ceived as  members,  were  too  serious  for 
them  to  cure  by  any  means  which  they 
could  use.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  re- 
moval from  Amsterdam  would  be  greatly 
to  the  prejudice  of  their  outward  estates, 
both  in  the  present  and  as  it  proved  in  the 
years  which  followed,  they  decided  to  find 
a  refuge  and  home  in  Leyden.  And  fear- 
ing "that  the  flames  of  contention  were 
likely  to  break  out  in  the  ancient  church" 
in  Amsterdam,  Robinson  and  some  one 
hundred  members,  men  and  women,  peti- 
81 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

tioned  the  authorities  of  Leyden  for  per- 
mission to  reside  in  Leyden,  "to  have  the 
freedom  thereof  in  carrying  on  their  trades 
without  being  the  burden  in  the  least  to 
any  one."  The  magistrates  reply,  "that 
they  refuse  no  honest  persons  free  ingress 
to  come  and  have  their  residence  in  this 
city:  provided  that  such  persons  behave 
themselves  and  submit  to  the  laws  and 
ordinances,"  and  assure  the  petitioners 
that  their  coming  will  be  both  "agreeable 
and  welcome." 

The  Amsterdam  Church  before  the 
division  contained  about  three  hun- 
dred communicants,  and  it  is  doubtful 
if  the  Leyden  Church  at  its  maximum  ex- 
ceeded that  number.  As  a  French  chroni- 
cler describes  it,  Leyden,  then  a  city  of 
one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  was 
"one  of  the  grandest,  the  comeliest 
and  most  charming  cities  in  the  world," 
and  Polyander,  the  Professor  of  Sacred 
Theology  in  the  University  in  Leyden 
during  a  part  of  the  Pilgrims*  stay  there, 
says: 

82 


The  Low  Countries  are  the  best  part  of 
Europe.  Of  the  Seventeen  Provinces  of  the 
Low  Countries  Holland  is  the  richest,  the 
most  flourishing,  and  the  finest.  The  most 
beautiful  and  altogether  charming  city  of 
Holland  is  Leyden. 

From  their  arrival  in  1609  in  Leyden  to 
their  departure  in  1620,  the  Pilgrims  had 
their  home  in  this  "fair  and  beautiful  city 
but  made  more  famous  by  the  universi- 
tie,"  and  there  they  enjoyed  "a  compe- 
tent and  comfortable  living"  as  Bradford 
describes  it,  "  but  with  hard  and  continual 
labore." 

Brewster  became  a  teacher  and  printer, 
Robinson  entered  the  university  as  a  stu- 
dent of  theology,  and  was  a  frequent  dis- 
putant in  the  public  debates  as  a  cham- 
pion of  Calvinism  against  the  errors  of 
Arminianism,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as 
their  pastor  and  his  labors  as  a  controver- 
sial writer.  The  other  members  of  the 
Pilgrim  Company  in  many  different,  gain- 
ful, but  humble  occupations  were  soon 
engaged,  and  the  years  passed  peacefully. 

The  debt  which  the  Pilgrims  (and  this 
83 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

nation  which  they  helped  to  found)  owed 
to  Holland  can  scarcely  be  overestimated. 
They  had  seen  in  Holland  a  system  of  free 
public  schools,  supported  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, and  the  result  was  a  land  "where 
every  child  went  to  school,  where  almost 
every  inhabitant  could  read  and  write, 
where  even  the  middle  classes  were  profi- 
cient in  mathematics  and  the  classics,  and 
could  speak  two  or  more  languages,"  if  we 
may  accept  the  authority  of  Motley.1 

There  was  no  denial  there  of  the  liberty 
of  the  press,  and  no  occasion  for  a  Milton 
to  plead  for  an  unlicensed  press.  The 
right  to  print  subject  only  to  hazard 
and  penalty  as  John  Milton  carefully  de- 
fines it,  which  England  denied,  Holland 
granted,  and  Brewster  printed  without 
the  necessity  of  first  submitting  his  manu- 
script to  either  prelate  or  censor. 

The  foremost  university  of  Europe  was 
in  full  view  of  their  simple  dwellings  in 
Clock  Street  or  Bell  Alley.  The  propriety 
and  convenience  of  a  civil  marriage  cere- 

1  United  Netherlands,  iv,  432;  Campbell,  n,  342. 
84 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

mony  they  had  learnt  by  actual  experi- 
ence in  Holland,  and  its  practice  by  Wins- 
low  in  New  Plymouth  was  to  cost  him 
later  seventeen  weeks'  imprisonment  in 
the  Fleet  Prison  under  the  illiberal  re- 
quirements of  the  English  law. 

With  the  advantages  of  registry  in  a 
public  office  of  all  deeds  and  mortgages,  to 
which  has  been  attributed  in  part  the 
commercial  prosperity  of  the  Dutch,  they 
were  familiar  by  actual  experience  in  Ley- 
den.  They  had  also  observed  the  use  of 
public  records  in  political  and  religious 
organizations,  for  in  addition  to  the  im- 
portant records  for  mortgages  and  trans- 
fer of  lands,  there  were  twenty  other 
kinds  of  public  records  kept  in  Leyden. 
Besides  this  indebtedness  to  the  Dutch 
which  their  life  in  Holland  had  brought 
them,  there  is  another  fact  worthy  of  no- 
tice, that  even  in  the  New  World  the 
Dutch  sagacity  and  experience  were  help- 
ful. The  use  of  wampum  as  a  currency 
in  trading  with  the  Indian  the  Pilgrim 

learned  from  the  Dutch  at  Manhattan. 

p 

85 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Neither  the  planters  at  Plymouth  nor  the 
English  in  any  other  plantation  in  the 
New  World  so  "much  as  knew  what  it 
was  until  they  had  knowledge  of  it  from 
the  Dutch  and  much  less  that  it  was  a 
commodity  of  worth  and  value."  When 
its  use  at  the  trading-posts  became  estab- 
lished, it  proved  a  current  commodity 
which  greatly  facilitated  that  Indian 
trade  upon  which  they  depended  for  the 
furs  and  skins,  and  upon  which  they  re- 
lied for  exports  to  England. 

But  above  all  and  more  than  all,  they 
had  found  in  Holland  that  "freedom  of 
Religion  for  all  men"  which  they  sought 
and  for  which  they  had  left  their  English 
homes.  As  the  slow  years  passed  there 
were  many  factors  which  contributed  to 
influence  the  members  of  the  Leyden 
Church  to  consider  seriously  the  question 
of  a  removal  from  Holland  and  which 
finally  determined  their  policy  of  migra- 
tion. 

The  Treaty  of  Antwerp,  which  defined 
the  relations  between  Spain  and  the 
86 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

Netherlands,  provided  for  a  truce  of 
twelve  years  and  was  soon  to  expire  by 
limitation.  The  future  was  dark  and  un- 
certain. If  war  were  again  to  break  out, 
their  situation  would  be  critical  and  dan- 
gerous, and  already  there  was  a  beating  of 
drums  in  the  streets  and  the  preparations 
for  war  had  begun.  The  passing  years  had 
reduced  their  numbers  by  death  and  re- 
moval and  few  were  found  to  take  the 
places  of  those  who  had  withdrawn  their 
membership  or  died.  Some  preferred  even 
an  English  prison  to  liberty  in  Holland 
with  the  afflictions  which  bore  heav- 
ily upon  them.  The  aged  saw  old  age 
stealing  upon  them  with  no  prospect  of 
relief  from  their  heavy  burdens.  The 
young  men  were  becoming  soldiers  or 
sailors  or  were  drawn  into  dangerous 
courses,  undisciplined  and  unrestrained 
by  family  ties,  and  their  habits  were  be- 
coming corrupt  and  their  character  de- 
generate. They  longed  for  the  protection 
of  the  English  flag;  they  were  losing  the 
English  language  and  the  English  name, 
87 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  they  missed  for  their  children  the 
education  which  they  had  received  in 
their  English  homes. 

"Above  all  other  lands  on  earth 

They  loved  the  Land  that  gave  them  birth. 
Its  seagirt  coasts,  its  downs, 
Its  hamlets  and  its  towns. 
The  green  fields  where  their  children  played, 
The  churchyards  where  their  sires  were  laid. 

"They  loved  their  England,  what  was  best 

In  her  they  loved,  but  not  the  rest; 
Her  State  that  made  her  great 
But  not  her  Church  in  State." 

And  lastly,  they  "were  inspired  with  a 
great  hope  and  inward  zeal,"  as  Bradford 
says,  "for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  the  remote  parts  of  the  world,  a  mighty 
work  in  which  they  might  be  the  step- 
ping-stones for  those  who  might  follow  in 
the  paths  where  they  had  led."  These 
considerations  were  not  only  persuasive, 
but  conclusive.  The  Dutch  had  wel- 
comed them,  approved  them,  and  sought 
to  persuade  them  to  remain  as  citizens  of 
the  Netherlands.  "These  English,"  said 
88 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

the  magistrates  of  Ley  den,  "have  lived 
amongst  us  now  these  twelve  years,  and 
yet  we  never  had  any  suit  or  accusation 
against  any  of  them." 

The  Dutch  made  two  offers  to  the  mem- 
bers of  this  Pilgrim  Church,  one,  to  re- 
main and  settle  in  the  Province  of  Zea- 
land; the  other,  free  transportation  to  the 
Hudson  River  with  cattle  and  other  sup- 
plies for  each  family. 

The  directors  of  the  Netherlands  Com- 
pany petitioned  the  Prince  of  Orange,  in 
February,  1620,  to  take  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Holland  "a  certain  English 
preacher  residing  in  Leyden  who  is  well 
inclined  to  proceed  thither  [New  Nether- 
land]  to  live,"  and  who  has  assured  the 
petitioners  that  "he  has  the  means  of  in- 
ducing over  400  families  to  accompany 
him  thither,  both  out  of  this  country  and 
England."  The  directors  also  called  at- 
tention to  the  evident  policy  of  England 
to  settle  the  territory  in  America  between 
the  fortieth  and  forty-fifth  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, then  claimed  by  the  Dutch  as  the 
89 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

New  Netherland,  whose  title  rested  on 
prior  discovery  and  occupation,  and  de- 
•clared  that  the  English  purpose  was  to 
dispossess  by  force  the  State  of  the  Neth- 
erlands of  its  right  therein. 

They  asked  that  in  view  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  country  that  two  ships 
should  be  dispatched  to  secure  it  against 
the  English  and  protect  the  Dutch  ships 
already  there.  That  application  was  re- 
jected by  the  States  General  for  reasons 
which  can  only  be  conjectured,  as  they 
are  not  set  forth  in  the  reply. 

Then  they  considered  a  removal  to 
Guiana,  alleging  that  that  country  was 
rich  and  fruitful  and  blessed  with  a 
perpetual  spring  where  vigorous  nature 
brought  forth  all  things  in  abundance  and 
plenty,  without  any  great  labor  or  art  of 
man.  To  that  course  it  was  objected  that 
even  if  the  country  yielded  riches  its  cli- 
matic conditions  were  unsuitable  to  Eng- 
lishmen, and  more  serious  still  was  the 
proximity  of  the  jealous  Spaniard  who 
would  not  suffer  them  to  live  there  long. 
90 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

And  so  Guiana  as  a  place  for  their  planta- 
tion was  rejected. 

The  attention  of  the  Pilgrims  had  evi- 
dently been  directed  to  Guiana  by  reason 
of  the  voyages  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh  in 
1595,  the  settlement  of  Captain  Ley  in 
1605,  and  the  explorations  of  Sir  Thomas 
Roe,  Captain  William  White,  and  others, 
and  particularly  the  plantation  under- 
taken by  Captain  Robert  Harcourt  in!609, 
who  obtained  from  Prince  Henry  a  large 
patent  "for  all  that  coast  called  Guiana, 
together  with  the  famous  River  of  Ama- 
zones,  to  him  and  his  heirs."  "And  the 
events  relative  to  the  New  Netherland 
possessions  in  the  Brazils  and  along  the 
coast  of  Guiana  are  recorded  by  several 
historians  in  the  Netherlands." 

In  1617  Sir  Walter  Ralegh  with  many 
valiant  soldiers  and  brave  gentlemen 
made  his  last  voyage  to  Guiana,  and  after 
his  return  to  England  he  endeavored  by 
his  best  abilities  to  interest  his  country 
and  state  in  those  fair  regions.  It  is  a 
Curious  fact  that  the  very  year  in  which 
91 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  Pilgrims  sailed  for  the  New  World, 
Captain  Robert  North,  with  one  hundred 
and  twenty  gentlemen  and  others,  with  a 
ship,  a  pinnace,  and  two  shallops  to  re- 
main in  the  country,  set  sail  from  Plym- 
outh on  the  last  of  April,  1620,  and 
within  seven  weeks  after  he  arrived  at 
the  Amazon  with  the  loss  of  only  one  old 
man.  They  sailed  up  the  river  one  hun- 
dred leagues  to  settle  the  men,  "where 
the  sight  of  the  country  and  people  so 
contented  them  that  never  men  thought 
themselves  more  happy,"  as  the  chronicler 
records  it. 

By  this  process  of  elimination  of  possi- 
ble locations  for  a  permanent  home,  it  be- 
came clear  that  there  was  no  place  which 
met  so  many  of  their  requirements  as 
some  part  of  Virginia.  The  decision  hav- 
ing been  made  where  they  were  to  go,  the 
next  matter  for  debate  was  how  they 
were  to  go.  Authority  and  means  were 
both  necessary.  The  Crown  charter  of 
1606  had  given  to  the  London  Company 
the  territorial  and  governmental  rights  in 
92 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

the  New  World  between  the  thirty -fourth 
and  forty-first  degrees  of  north  latitude, 
and  to  the  Plymouth  Company  between 
the  thirty-eighth  and  forty-fifth,  north 
latitude,  and  the  rights  and  powers  of  the 
two  companies  thereby  overlapped  in  that 
part  of  the  grants  between  the  thirty- 
eighth  and  forty-first  degrees.  This  inter- 
lapping  territory  of  three  degrees  included 
that  tract  of  land  bounded  approximately 
on  the  coast-line  on  the  north  by  the  Hud- 
son and  on  the  south  by  the  Potomac. 
Either  colony  had  the  right  to  plant  there, 
subject  only  to  the  proviso  in  the  charter 
that  neither  colony  should  make  a  planta- 
tion within  one  hundred  miles  of  a  prior 
plantation  by  the  other. 

If,  then,  the  Pilgrims  had  in  the  first 
instance  secured  their  patent  from  the 
second  or  Plymouth  Company,  as  later 
they  did,  instead  of  the  first  or  London 
Company,  their  landing  either  south  of 
the  Hudson,  or  at  Cape  Cod  or  Plymouth, 
would  have  been  within  the  territorial 
limits  of  their  patent  and  there  would 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

have  been  no  occasion  for  the  Compact 
and  therefore  no  Compact. 

To  secure  the  assent  of  the  English 
Government  to  this  adventure,  some 
time  in  1617  Robinson  and  Brewster,  the 
religious  leaders  of  the  company  and  best 
fitted  to  express  the  religious  convictions 
of  the  members  of  the  church,  sent  a 
statement  called  the  "Seven  Articles"  to 
England,  a  copy  of  which  is  still  preserved 
in  the  Public  Record  Office,  and  which  de- 
fines with  some  minuteness  their  attitude 
towards  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities. This  statement  seems  to  occa- 
sion some  embarrassment  to  the  few  histo- 
rians who  have  commented  upon  it  in  their 
effort  to  explain  its  apparent  inconsist- 
ency with  the  Pilgrims'  doctrine  and  pol- 
icy. It  expresses  in  exact  terms  their 
assent  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles,  and  to  the  authority 
and  supremacy  of  the  King  in  Church  or 
State.  This  is  in  entire  conformity  with 
their  expressed  readiness  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  and  supremacy,  and  a  con- 
04 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

trolling  factor  in  their  decision  to  go  to 
Virginia  was  that  they  might  be  within 
the  limits  of  the  English  dominion  and 
under  an  English  king.  But  their  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  authority  of  the 
present  bishops  in  England,  as  set  forth 
in  the  5th  Article,  where  they  in  terms 
state,  "  The  authority  of  the  present  bish- 
ops in  the  land  we  do  acknowledge  so 
far  forth  as  the  same  is  indeed  derived 
from  His  Majesty  in  them  and  as  they 
proceed  in  his  name,"  can  best  be  recon- 
ciled with  their  theory  of  independency  by 
adopting  the  distinction  which  they  made 
between  civil  and  spiritual  authority. 

It  was,  of  course,  to  be  expected  that 
they  would  seek  to  minimize  any  differ- 
ences, but  the  meaning  which  they  gave 
to  this  recognition  of  the  authority  of  the 
bishops  had  already  been  clearly  stated 
by  one  no  less  independent  than  they. 
That  distinction  had  been  made  in  the 
formal  confession  of  faith  made  in  1619 
by  that  Independent  Church  in  London, 
which  in  that  year  was  established  by 
95 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Henry  Jacob  on  his  return  from  Holland. 
That  confession  in  terms  states  the  policy 
of  the  Independent  Congregation  as: 
"We  believe  that  we  and  all  true,  visible 
churches  ought  to  be  overseen  and  kept 
in  good  order  and  peace  and  ought  to  be 
governed  under  Christ  both  supremely 
and  also  subordinately  by  the  civil  magis- 
trate, yes,  in  causes  of  religion  when  need 
is."  Nor  did  Mr.  Robinson  deny  that  es- 
tablished churches  were  true  churches,  al- 
though he  held  that  the  errors  and  defects 
of  that  Church  were  sufficient  to  justify 
the  formation  of  separate  congregations. 
Thus,  he  writes:  "I  believe  with  my  heart 
before  God  and  profess  with  my  tongue 
before  the  world,  that  I  have  one  and  the 
same  faith,  hope,  spirit,  baptism  and  Lord 
which  I  had  in  the  Church  of  England  and 
none  other."  And  as  has  been  before 
stated,  it  cannot  be  controverted  that  the 
influences  under  which  Robinson  lived  in 
Holland  had,  as  the  years  went  by,  con- 
tributed to  a  wider  liberality  in  his  views 
of  and  relations  to  that  Church,  which  is 
96 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

well  illustrated  by  the  fact,  and  it  should 
not  be  forgotten,  that  Lyford,  the  first 
minister  of  the  Plymouth  Church,  who 
was  sent  over  by  the  merchant  adven- 
turers, was  a  Church  of  England  man  and 
yet  accepted  by  the  congregation  without 
protest.  Technically  the  little  church 
which  first  gathered  in  the  common  house 
or  fort,  not  only  during  the  first  year  of 
the  colony,  but  until  the  Revolution,  was 
within  the  diocese  of  London  as  matter  of 
law,  and  that  fact  was  clearly  stated  in 
that  comparatively  recent  decision  by  the 
Consistory  Court  of  London  upon  the  ap- 
plication for  the  return  of  the  Bradford 
manuscript  to  America,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Chancellor,  as  follows: 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, New  England  was  for  Ecclesiasti- 
cal purposes  in  the  Diocese  of  London  .  .  . 
and  the  Bishops  Registry  being  the  only  Pub- 
lic Registry  for  the  custody  of  such  docu- 
ments (certificates  of  marriages,  births  and 
deaths)  within  the  Diocese. 

Through     Sir      Edwin     Sandys     (the 
brother  of  that  Sir  Samuel  Sandys  from 
97 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

whom  Brewster  held  the  Manor  House  at 
Scrooby) ,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Virginia  Company  and  at  some 
time  its  president  and  treasurer,  they 
secured  the  cooperation  of  Sir  Robert 
Naunton,  the  principal  Secretary  of  State 
under  King  James,  in  an  effort  to  persuade 
the  King  to  formally  permit  them  to  live 
under  his  protection  in  America  and  enjoy 
liberty  of  conscience.  The  King  asked  the 
Secretary  what  the  profits  might  be  of 
such  an  adventure  and  the  answer  was 
"Fishing,"  to  which  the  King  replied, 
"So  God  have  my  soul!  It  is  an  honest 
trade,  it  was  the  Apostles'  own  calling." 
The  King  had  his  joke  and  showed  to  his 
satisfaction  his  learning  and  his  wit,  but 
refused  to  give  his  formal  consent.  He 
was  ready  to  connive  at  them  and  agree 
not  to  molest  them,  but  no  official  per- 
mission under  his  seal  could  issue,  and 
they  were  referred  to  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don and  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

They  did  in  this  matter  the  sensible  and 
practical  thing,  and  made  no  application 
98 


THE  PHGRB1S  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  but  con- 
tented themselves  with  the  sane  reflection 
that  the  word  of  the  King  was  as  good  as 
the  written  grant  under  the  royal  seal, 
for,  as  they  quaintly  and  accurately 
stated  it,  "though  they  had  a  seal  as 
broad  as  the  house  floor,  if  he  changed  his 
mind,  some  way  would  be  found  to  revoke 
the  warrant." 

In  the  name  of  John  Wincop  or  Wincob, 
as  Bradford  spells  it,  in  June,  1619,  the 
London  Virginia  Company  granted  a  pat- 
ent and  ordered  that  the  seal  should  be 
annexed.  Wincop,  as  the  Company's 
record  shows,  intended  to  go  in  person  to 
Virginia  and  there  to  plant  himself  and 
his  associates.  Wincop  did  not  go  and  the 
patent  was  never  used  and  is  not  known 
to  be  in  existence.  Possibly  it  was  among 
the  papers  which  were  taken  from  the 
Fortune  in  January,  1622,  by  the  French 
man-of-war  and  carried  to  the  Isle  de 
Dieu  at  the  time  when  the  Marquis  de 
Cera,  governor  of  the  island,  took  away  the 
goods  of  the  vessel,  and  especially  the  let- 
99 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ter  written  by  William  Bradford,  contain- 
ing a  general  relation  of  matters  in  Plym- 
outh, the  latter  a  contribution  to  the  his- 
tory of  Plymouth  of  prime  importance, 
but  all  efforts  for  its  recovery  have  proved 
unavailing. 

The  patent  having  been  obtained,  their 
efforts  were  redoubled  to  secure  the  neces- 
sary assistance  to  enable  them  to  prose- 
cute the  voyage.  For  the  requisite  ships 
and  supplies  necessary  to  give  any  hope 
of  success  for  this  plantation  the  coopera- 
tion of  those  English  merchants  who 
might  be  ready  to  adventure  in  an  under- 
taking like  that  proposed  wras  essential. 
The  details  of  the  negotiations  which  the 
Pilgrims  conducted  through  their  repre- 
sentatives are  not  material  to  this  in- 
quiry, but  it  is  important  to  note  that 
the  final  terms,  reluctantly  agreed  upon, 
made  necessary  a  contract  which  seemed 
burdensome  when  made  and  which  be- 
came more  burdensome  as  the  months 
went  by  in  their  homes  along  the  first 
street  in  Plymouth. 

100 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

This  arrangement  between  the  mer- 
chant adventurers  and  the  Pilgrims  is 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  joint-stock 
company,  but  obviously  that  was  not  the 
form  which  the  undertaking  took,  for 
there  was  neither  a  corporation,  a  seal, 
nor  stock.  I  suppose  the  error  grows  from 
the  misinterpretation  of  Bradford's  ex- 
pression that  they  put  their  money  into 
the  "common  stock."  The  terms  of  the 
agreement  show  a  relation  more  resem- 
bling a  partnership  and  not  at  all  unlike 
the  later  contracts  for  the  prosecution 
of  fishing  voyages  in  New  England,  by 
which  the  men  who  furnished  the  vessel 
and  the  main  supplies  took  one  share  of 
the  catch,  and  the  captain  and  the  crew, 
in  agreed  proportion,  the  other  share. 

Under  the  arrangement  it  was  provided 
that  at  the  end  of  seven  years  the  original 
investment  and  the  profits  of  the  adven- 
ture should  be  equally  divided  between 
the  adventurers  and  the  planters.  Each 
planter  above  the  age  of  sixteen  had  a 
single  share  and  if  he  furnished  money  or 
101 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

provisions  to  the  amount  of  ten  pounds, 
he  was  to  receive  two  shares,  and  so  on  in 
that  proportion.  If  the  planter  took  with 
him  his  wife  or  children  or  servants,  he 
was  allowed  for  every  person  of  the  age  of 
sixteen  another  share;  if  there  were  any 
between  ten  years  of  age  and  sixteen,  he 
had  a  third  share;  and  any  child  under  the 
age  of  ten  had  no  share  in  the  division  but 
was  given  fifty  acres  of  umnanured  land; 
and  in  addition  to  that  all  the  planters, 
their  wives  and  children  and  servants, 
were  to  have  their  meat,  drink,  apparel, 
and  provisions  out  of  the  common  fund. 
If  the  plantation  was  unsuccessful,  the 
planters  lost  their  time  and  money  in- 
vested; the  adventurers  lost  their  invest- 
ment. Its  effect  was  to  establish  a  com- 
munity life  in  that  new  land  to  which  they 
went,  by  reason  of  which,  long  before  the 
seven  years  had  terminated,  there  re- 
sulted embarrassments,  serious,  interest- 
ing, and  significant,  which  must  be  more 
fully  considered  in  the  following  lecture. 
The  negotiations  were  completed,  the 
102 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

smaller  ship,  the  "  Speedwell,"  was  en- 
gaged to  transport  such  members  of  the 
Leyden  Company  as  were  to  engage  in  this 
plantation,  from  Delf thaven  to  Southamp- 
ton, where  they  were  to  meet  the  "  May- 
flower "  with  those  persons  who  were  not 
members  of  the  church  at  Leyden,  but  had 
been  induced  to  leave  their  English  homes 
to  join  in  this  adventurous  undertaking. 

One  other  problem  waited  solution  and 
that  was  to  determine  who  of  the  Leyden 
Church  were  to  go  and  who  were  to  re- 
main. Obviously  it  was  impossible  for  all 
the  members  of  the  church  to  go  in  the 
ships,  and  the  supplies  were  inadequate 
even  if  they  had  been  so  inclined.  When  a 
minority  of  the  members  of  the  church 
decided  to  go,  it  was  agreed  that  the  pas- 
tor should  remain  and  the  elder,  Brewster, 
should  go  as  the  religious  teacher  and 
leader.  It  was  further  determined  that 
those  who  went  should  become  an  "abso- 
lute" or  independent  church,  and  those 
who  remained  should  continue  the  exist- 
ing  organization. 

103 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  date,  then,  of  the  organization  of 
the  first  church  in  Plymouth  should  prop- 
erly be  fixed  as  in  the  year  1620,  and  not 
in  the  year  1606,  when  the  first  members 
of  the  congregation  assembled  at  Scrooby. 
In  accordance  with  the  congregational 
way,  it  was  agreed,  if  any  returned  to 
Leyden  or  if  any  from  Leyden  there- 
after went  to  America,  no  letters  of  dis- 
missal or  testimonial  would  be  necessary 
to  enable  them  to  unite  either  with  the 
church  at  Leyden  or  with  the  church  in 
America. 

On  August  1,  1620,  the  Leyden  mem- 
bers of  the  Pilgrim  Company  sailed  on  the 
"  Speedwell "  from  Delfthaven  for  South- 
ampton. 

"And  now  with  lingering  long  embrace, 
With  tears  of  love  and  partings  fond, 
They  floated  down  the  creeping  Maas, 
Along  the  Isle  of  Ysselmond. 

"They  passed  the  frowning  towers  of  Briel, 
The  'Hook  of  Holland's'  shelf  of  sand 
And  grated  soon  with  lifting  keel, 
The  sullen  shores  of  fatherland." 

104 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

On  the  15th  of  August,  N.S.,  the  "  May- 
flower" and  " Speedwell"  leave  Southamp- 
ton Water.  Before  they  had  passed  out  of 
the  English  Channel  they  were  obliged  to  re- 
turn to  the  sheltered  harbor  of  Dartmouth 
for  repairs  to  the  "  Speedwell."  On  Sep- 
tember 2  they  make  a  second  departure, 
and  when  they  had  sailed  a  hundred  leagues 
beyond  Land's  End,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  "  Speedwell "  was  leaking  so  badly 
that  her  pumps  could  barely  free  her.  It 
seemed  impossible  then  for  the  "  Speed- 
well "  to  continue  on  the  voyage  and  both 
ships  were  obliged  to  return.  The  disaster 
to  the  "  Speedwell "  is  attributed  to  the 
deceit  of  the  master  and  crew  who  plotted 
the  stratagem  of  her  unseaworthy  condi- 
tion to  relieve  themselves  of  the  burden 
of  the  contract,  which  required  them  to 
stay  a  whole  year  in  the  new  country. 

Reaching  Plymouth,  England,  it  was 
necessary  to  reorganize  the  expedition. 
Those  who  were  reluctant  to  sail  re- 
mained, and  the  "  Mayflower,"  with  a 
full  complement  of  crew  and  passengers, 
105 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

sailed  from  Plymouth  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1620. 

"Then,  the  sea's  wide  blue!  — 
'They  sailed,'  writ  one,  'and  as  they  sailed  they 

knew 
That  they  were  Pilgrims.' " 

Nearly  ten  weeks  passed  before  they  came 
to  anchor  on  the  21st  of  November  in 
Cape  Cod  Bay,  after  a  voyage  of  suffering 
and  hardship,  and  attended  with  grave 
perils.  One  hundred  and  two  passengers 
sailed  on  the  "Mayflower"  from  Plym- 
outh. On  the  voyage  one  of  the  company 
died,  and  a  child,  appropriately  named 
Oceanus,  was  born,  so  that  the  same 
number  of  passengers  were  on  board  the 
"Mayflower"  when  she  dropped  anchor 
in  Cape  Cod  Harbor. 

Not  all  the  passengers  of  the  "  Mayflow- 
er" were  members  of  the  Leyden  Church. 
Only  two  are  known  to  have  lived  in 
the  little  hamlets  of  Scrooby  and  Auster- 
field,  and  many  another  county  than  the 
three  which  Bradford  named,  Lincolnshire, 
Nottinghamshire,  or  Yorkshire,  had  con- 
106 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

tributed  to  the  "  Mayflower's  "  passenger 
list.  The  efforts  of  the  merchant  adven- 
turers or  agents,  the  thirst  for  adventure, 
and  the  love  of  gain  had  brought  together 
in  that  solitary  vessel  many  a  stranger  to 
the  Ley  den  leaders.  The  protracted  voy- 
age had  been  severe  and  perilous,  and 
grave  difference  of  opinion  arose  among 
the  mariners  as  to  whether  it  were  wiser  to 
proceed  or  to  return,  as  the  ship,  beaten 
about  by  fierce  storms,  ploughed  its 
lonely  way  through  the  dreary  and  wind- 
swept Atlantic.  Faction  appeared;  unity 
and  concord  were  endangered.  Here  are 
mutterings  of  discontent,  and  there  mu- 
tinous speeches  from  these  strangers  on 
board  the  ship. 

When  Cape  Cod  was  sighted  it  was  re- 
solved to  tack  and  stand  for  the  south- 
ward, the  wind  and  weather  permitting, 
and  to  find  some  place  about  the  Hudson 
River   for   their   permanent   habitation. 
But  before  the  day  was  spent  they  found 
themselves  in  grave  peril  from  dangerous 
^shoals  and  roaring  breakers.   It  was  then 
107 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

decided  to  bear  up  again  for  the  Cape, 
and  the  next  day  their  frail  bark  rode  in 
safety  within  the  sheltering  arms  of  Cape 
Cod  harbor. 

The  abandonment  of  their  purpose  to 
settle  within  the  limits  of  their  patent  led 
to  more  open  and  positive  declarations 
from  the  mutineers,  that  when  the  voyage 
had  ended  and  a  landing  effected  outside 
of  the  jurisdiction  which  their  patent  con- 
ferred, there  would  be  no  authority  exist- 
ing to  restrain  the  liberty  of  any  dissatis- 
fied passenger,  and  it  became  evident  that 
some  practical  means  must  be  promptly 
adopted  to  maintain  law,  order,  and  dis- 
cipline. So  long  as  they  remained  on  the 
ship  the  problem  was  not  serious.  Not 
only  did  the  master  of  the  ship  have  the 
right  and  authority  to  enforce  discipline 
wherever  necessary  for  the  security  of  the 
vessel  and  the  safety  of  the  passengers, 
but  also  before  they  had  left  Southampton 
they  had  adopted  a  practical  and  effective 
organization. 

They  had  already  chosen  a  governor 
108 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

and  assistants  to  order  the  people  by  the 
way  and  see  to  the  disposing  of  their  pro- 
visions and  such  like  affairs.  Their  pur- 
pose and  their  polity  had  been  clearly  de- 
fined in  that  striking  letter  from  Robinson 
to  the  Pilgrim  Company,  which  had  been 
received  at  Southampton  before  they 
sailed  and  before  they  had  made  choice  of 
Carver  as  the  Governor  of  the  "May- 
flower" and  Martin  of  the  "Speedwell." 
.  Now  this  letter  from  the  great  preacher 
and  leader  of  the  Pilgrims  from  his  home 
in  Leyden  in  terms  stated  that  the  Pil- 
grim Company  were  to  become  in  the 
New  World  a  body  politic,  using  amongst 
themselves  civil  government,  and  con- 
tained the  direction  not  only  that  in 
choosing  into  the  office  of  government 
they  should  choose  such  persons  as  did 
entirely  love  and  promote  the  common 
good,  but  also  that  they  should  yield  unto 
those  so  chosen  "all  due  honor  and  obedi- 
ence in  their  lawful  administrations." 
This  advice  of  Robinson  was  undoubtedly 
in  conformity  with  the  authority  granted 
109 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

by  the  formal  letters  patent  issued  by  the 
Virginia  Company  in  June,  1619,  and  sent 
to  Holland  for  the  consideration  of  the  in- 
tending emigrants,  and  which  defined  the 
territorial  limits  of  the  proposed  settle- 
ment to  be  south  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson. 

It  was  clear  that  to  them  had  come  the 
opportunity  and  duty  of  organizing  a 
body  politic,  establishing  a  civil  govern- 
ment, adopting  such  laws  and  ordinances 
as  to  them  seemed  fit  and  necessary  by 
the  consent  of  the  majority,  and  to  be  en- 
forced by  governors  and  other  officers  of 
their  voluntary  selection.  The  letter  ex- 
pressed the  idea  of  civil  liberty  which 
Theodore  Parker  first  clearly  stated  in  the 
sentence,  "  Government  of  the  people,  for 
the  people,  and  by  the  people,"  and  which 
Lincoln  made  famous. 

The  idea,  then,  which  lay  at  the  basis 
of  the  Mayflower  Compact,  and  which 
poets  and  painters,  speculative  historians 
and  imaginative  orators  have  assumed 
was  first  discovered  in  the  cabin  of  the 
110 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

"Mayflower"  after  she  had  reached  the 
New  World,  was  in  reality  an  idea  that  was 
presented  and  considered  and  adopted  be- 
fore they  had  lost  sight  of  the  gray  walls 
of  Southampton,  and  before  the  difficulty 
which  now  confronted  them  had  been 
anticipated.  It  is  true  that  this  idea  of 
civil  liberty  and  local  self-government 
was  the  great  conception  which  lay  at  the 
very  basis  of  their  undertaking,  but  it  was 
expressed  by  Robinson  in  his  letter  and 
must  have  been  found  in  the  original 
patent  itself. 

,  The  later  patents  of  1621  and  1629  in 
terms  granted  to  them  the  right,  by  con- 
sent of  the  greater  part,  to  establish  such 
laws  and  ordinances  as  are  for  their  better 
government,  and  the  same  by  such  officer 
or  officers  as  they  shall  by  most  voices 
select  and  choose  to  put  in  execution. 
.  Having  then  adopted  a  polity,  its  form 
defined  in  letter  and  patent,  what  was  the 
obvious  thing  for  a  company  of  sagacious 
Englishmen,  wisely  led,  to  do  under  exist- 
ing conditions?  Clearly,  it  seems  to  me,  to 
111 


make  an  agreement  which  shall  carry  into 
effect  the  plan,  and  follow  as  nearly  as 
may  be  the  language  of  the  instrument 
under  which  they  had  so  far  proceeded, 
and  by  which  they  agree  to  be  bound  by 
such  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions, 
and  offices  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet 
and  convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the 
colony,  until  a  new  patent  could  be  se- 
cured. 

And  so  they  covenant  and  combine 
into  a  civil  body  politic,  and  there  is  not  a 
vital  word  in  the  Compact  which  you  will 
not  find  either  in  the  letter  of  Robinson  or 
the  patent.  And  because  they  had  already 
elected  a  governor  by  the  most  voices, 
they  make  no  reference  to  that  require- 
ment in  the  Compact  itself.  It  was  a 
temporary  expedient,  adapted  to  and 
forced  by  the  imperious  necessities  of  the 
situation.  It  was  an  agreement,  not  a 
constitution,  for  a  "constitution,  in  the 
American  sense  of  the  word,"  as  Justice 
Miller  defines  it,  "  is  a  written  instrument 
by  which  the  fundamental  powers  of  the 
112 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

government  are  established,  limited,  and 
defined,  and  by  which  these  powers  are 
distributed  among  several  departments 
for  their  more  safe  and  useful  exercise  for 
the  benefit  of  the  body  politic."  If,  there- 
fore, they  had  landed  within  the  limits  of 
the  first  charter,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson,  and  the  necessity  for  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Compact  had  not  arisen,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  their  scheme 
of  government,  that  the  form  of  their 
body  politic,  or  that  the  laws  and  ordi- 
nances which  they  enacted,  would  have 
been  in  any  respect  different,  or  that  they 
would  have  been  governed  other  than  by 
officers  and  governors  of  their  voluntary 
selection. 

And  now  that  they  make  their  first 
landing  in  the  harbor  of  Cape  Cod,  out- 
side of  the  territorial  limits  of  the  patent, 
whose  usefulness  is  at  an  end,  the  Com- 
pact to  which  they  subscribe  to  meet  the 
temporary  emergency  expresses  in  form 
and  substance,  in  thought  and  in  lan- 
guage, the  plan  of  government  set  forth  in 
113 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  letter  of  Robinson  and  the  original 
patent  itself. 

In  the  spring  the  "Mayflower,"  but  half 
manned,  sails  away  with  a  Relation  of 
their  condition  and  needs.  In  November, 
1621,  the  "Fortune"  arrives,  bringing  a 
patent,  from  the  Plymouth  Company  dif- 
fering mainly  from  the  first  patent  in  its 
territorial  grant.  From  the  date  of  its 
arrival  the  settlers  in  the  New  World 
found  in  it  the  clear  authority  for  the 
scheme  of  government  adopted.  It  grants 
in  terms  the  authority  "by  consent  of  the 
greater  part  of  them,  to  establish  such 
laws  and  ordinances  as  are  for  their  better 
government,  and  the  same  by  such  officer 
or  officers  as  they  shall  by  most  voices 
elect  and  choose  to  put  in  execution." 
The  same  provision  is  found  in  the  patent 
granted  by  Sheffield  to  Cushman  and 
Winslow  in  January,  1623,  for  the  settle- 
ment of  Cape  Ann,  and  also  in  the  Colony 
patent  of  1629,  granted  by  the  Plymouth 
Company  to  Bradford  and  his  associates. 

The  Compact  was  not  signed  by  all 
114 


THE  PILGRIMS  BEFORE  PLYMOUTH 

the  male  passengers,  even  if  we  assume 
that  the  signatures  of  the  fathers  made  it 
unnecessary  for  the  sons  to  sign,  or  that 
the  sons  were  minors  and  therefore  they 
were  not  asked  to  sign;  there  were  at 
least  seven  male  servants  and  the  two 
seamen  who  had  been  hired  for  a  year, 
whose  names  do  not  appear  among  the 
signers. 

No  new  settler  upon  the  soil,  no  later 
passenger  in  the  vessels  which  followed  in 
the  next  few  years,  ever  subscribed  his 
name  to  the  Compact.  With  only  two  ex- 
ceptions, so  far  as  I  am  advised,  there  is 
no  reference  to  it  in  any  law  or  ordinance 
or  public  or  official  action  of  the  Plymouth 
Colony  at  any  period  of  its  history.  These 
references  are  in  the  recital  of  reasons  for 
making  laws  in  the  Revision  of  the  Laws 
in  1636  and  in  the  "forme  to  be  placed 
before  the  records  of  the  severall  inheri- 
tances," etc.,  in  the  same  year.  The  Com- 
pact will  always  be  held  in  grateful  re- 
membrance and  high  honor  by  future 
^generations  — 

115 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

"Till  the  waves  in  the  Bay  where  the  Mayflower 

lay, 
Shall  foam  and  freeze  no  more." 

It  is  the  first  state  paper  in  the  New 
World  to  express  and  typify  and  symbol- 
ize the  high  conception,  the  inspiring  idea, 
of  civil  liberty,  of  self-government,  of  a 
true  democracy.  The  vision  which  they 
dimly  saw  is  realized,  the  dream  fulfilled. 

"They  did  the  work  they  had  to  do, 
They  builded  better  than  they  knew. 
So  must  the  few  whom  fate 
Selects  to  found  a  State. 

"They  founded  theirs  with  psalms  and  prayers; 
What  sounder  state  could  be  than  theirs, 
The  first  since  time  began 
Of  faith  in  God  and  Man?" 


Ill 

PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

IN  the  former  lectures  I  have  considered 
some  of  the  political,  geographical,  and 
legal  conditions  which  determined  the 
settlement  at  Plymouth,  and  some  of  the 
economic,  social,  and  religious  influences 
which  directed  and  shaped  the  Pilgrim 
migration  from  England  and  Holland  to 
the  New  World. 

I  propose  now  to  consider  mainly  those 
incidents  in  Pilgrim  history  which  are  of 
special  interest,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  Pil- 
grim story  and  may  have  their  uses  in  the 
consideration  of  the  present  problems  and 
perhaps  serve  to  illustrate  in  what  par- 
ticulars the  lives  and  examples  of  the  Pil- 
grims have  contributed  in  shaping  the 
American  polity. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  "  Mayflower  "  ar- 
rived in  Cape  Cod  harbor  on  the  21st  of 
November,  1620,  and  the  landing  at  Plym- 
117 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

outh  of  the  shallop's  company  was  ex- 
actly one  month  later,  namely,  the  21st  of 
December.  Between  those  dates  exploring 
parties  from  the  "Mayflower"  had  made 
their  expeditions  within  the  limits  of  Cape 
Cod  and  engaged  in  unimportant  and 
bloodless  encounters  with  the  Indian  tribe 
of  the  Cape. 

On  the  16th  of  December  the  shallop 
was  dispatched  for  the  purpose  of  coasting 
the  shore  of  Cape  Cod  Bay.  In  that  shal- 
lop there  sailed  ten  of  the  principal  men, 
which  number  included  Standish  and  the 
three  who  were  later  to  serve  as  governors 
of  the  colony  during  the  first  generation 
after  the  landing  —  Carver,  Bradford, 
and  Winslow.  With  them  went  the  two 
seamen  hired  by  the  Mayflower  Com- 
pany, and  of  the  ship's  company  two  mas- 
ter mates,  a  master  gunner,  and  three 
sailors.  It  was  a  distinctively  representa- 
tive company.  The  ten  passengers  of  the 
"Mayflower"  who  went  on  this  expedi- 
tion were  all  signers  of  the  Compact.  They 
coasted  along  the  interior  line  of  the  bay, 
118 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

discovering  no  place  adapted  for  a  harbor, 
and  therefore  decided  to  proceed  to  the 
place  which  the  pilot,  one  of  the  master 
mates  by  the  name  of  Coppin,  assured 
them  was  a  good  harbor  and  which  they 
would  be  likely  to  reach  before  nightfall. 

The  snow  and  rain,  the  increasing  wind 
and  the  roughness  of  the  sea,  made  the  ex- 
pedition one  of  peril.  In  a  heavy  sea  their 
mast  broke  and  was  carried  away,  and 
they  were  obliged  to  take  to  their  oars.  In 
the  rain  and  darkness  of  the  December 
night  they  succeeded  in  getting  under  the 
lee  of  a  small  island  and  remained  there 
that  night  in  safety. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday.  The  morn- 
ing dawned  fair.  In  the  warmth  of  the 
December's  sun  they  dried  their  clothes, 
rested  themselves,  and  gave  thanks  to 
God  for  His  mercies  in  their  manifold  de- 
liverances. 

On  Monday,  the  21st  of  December, 
they  sounded  the  harbor  which  had  wel- 
comed Champlain  and  Block  and  Smith 
before  the  Pilgrims'  arrival,  and  then, 
119 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

landing  upon  the  shore  and  marching  in 
to  the  land,  found  the  abandoned  corn- 
fields and  the  fresh  running  brooks.  It  is 
the  landing  of  the  shallop's  company  on 
the  21st  of  December,  1620,  which  has 
passed  into  history  as  the  Landing  of  the 
Pilgrims. 

For  the  preservation  of  the  Rock  and 
its  identification  as  the  spot  which  the 
Pilgrim  feet  first  pressed  as  they  landed 
on  the  shore  which  was  to  be  their  perma- 
nent home,  we  are  indebted  to  the  last 
ruling  elder  of  the  Plymouth  Church, 
Elder  Thomas  Faunce,  clarum  et  venerabile 
nomen  in  the  annals  of  Plymouth,  who, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  later 
(1741),  standing  beside  the  Rock  in  the 
presence  of  many  witnesses,  preserved  it 
from  being  buried  beneath  a  wharf  then  in 
process  of  construction,  and  told  the  story 
of  the  Landing  as  it  had  been  told  to  him 
by  the  Pilgrims.  He  was  Elder  of  the 
First  Church  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
from  1699  to  1746,  and  for  nearly  forty 
years,  from  1685  to  1723,  the  Town 
120 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Clerk.  Born  in  1647  he  had  lived  in  the 
lifetime  of  four  members  of  the  shallop's 
company,  a  boy  of  nine  years  when  Stand - 
ish  died,  of  ten  years  when  Bradford  died, 
and  a  man  of  twenty-six  years  when  John 
Rowland  died,  and  these  landed  from  the 
shallop  on  December  21,  1620.  He  was 
forty  years  old  when  John  Alden  died. 
He  had  known  twenty-three  of  the  May- 
flower passengers,  his  mother  was  the  sis- 
ter of  Nathaniel  Morton,  historian  and 
Secretary  of  the  Colony;  one  sister  mar- 
ried the  son  of  Richard  Warren;  another 
sister,  the  son  of  Edward  Dotey;  and  a 
third  sister,  the  son  of  John  Robinson.  Is 
there  any  valid  reason,  then,  to  doubt  the 
story  which  comes  from  the  lips  of  one 
whose  high  character,  official  position, 
and  unequaled  opportunities  to  learn  the 
fact  which  he  testifies,  compel  our  respect 
and  justify  our  confidence? 
i  With  the  news  that  they  had  selected 
this  place  to  plant  the  feeble  settlement, 
they  returned  to  Cape  Cod,  and  on  the 
26th  of  December,  1620,  the  "  Mayflower," 
121 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

with  torn  sails,  broken  timbers,  and  bat- 
tered hull,  came  to  anchor  in  the  harbor 
of  Plymouth.  Nine  days  later  they  began 
the  erection  on  Leyden  Street  of  their 
first  house,  which  was  to  be  the  common 
house  for  them  and  their  supplies. 

At  the  time  of  the  arrival,  according  to 
the  letter  from  John  White  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony,  written  ten  years  later, 
there  was  about  one  foot  of  snow  on  the 
ground,  and  the  weather  of  the  winter 
months  that  followed  is  reported  gener- 
ally to  have  been  mild  but  wet. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  two  passengers 
who  were  on  board  the  "Mayflower"  at 
the  date  of  the  signing  of  the  Compact 
in  Cape  Cod  harbor,  twenty-nine  were 
women  and  girls.  The  birth  of  Peregrine 
White,  the  first  English  child  born  in  New 
England,  increased  the  number  to  one  hun- 
dred and  three.  While  the  "Mayflower" 
lay  in  Cape  Cod  harbor  four  of  the  passen- 
gers died,  leaving  ninety -nine  in  all  from 
the  oldest  to  the  youngest  to  go  forward 
with  this  perilous  and  uncertain  adven- 
122 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ture.  The  total  number  of  survivors  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year  was  fifty-one. 
More  than  half  of  the  company  then  had 
died  between  the  signing  of  the  Compact 
and  the  arrival  of  the  "Fortune"  in  No- 
vember, 1 621 .  Of  that  number  forty-seven 
had  died  before  the  "  Mayflower  "  sailed  on 
its  return  voyage  in  April,  1621.  Of  the 
forty-one  signers  of  the  Compact,  twenty- 
one  had  perished.  Of  the  eighteen  wives 
and  mothers  only  four  survived  the  hard- 
ships of  the  first  year. 

"I  saw  in  the  naked  forest 
Our  scattered  remnant  cast, 
A  screen  of  shivering  branches 
Between  them  and  the  blast. 
The  snow  was  falling  round  them, 
The  dying  fell  as  fast, 
I  looked  to  see  them  perish 
When  lo,  the  vision  passed." 

In  the  last  analysis  the  descendants  of  the 
Mayflower  Company  to-day  must  trace 
their  descent  through  different  lines  to  one 
or  more  of  twenty-two  of  the  male  pas- 
sengers of  the  "  Mayflower." 
f    On  the  15th  of  April,  1621,  the  "  May- 
123 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

flower,"  after  lying  one  hundred  and  ten 
days  in  the  harbor  and  losing  nearly  half 
of  her  officers  and  crew  by  disease,  sails  on 
her  return  voyage  to  England,  leaving  the 
survivors  of  the  Pilgrim  Company  behind, 
"alone  with  their  dead."  There  was  no 
general  landing  of  the  Pilgrims;  many  of 
the  company  had  remained  on  board  the 
"Mayflower"  during  the  winter,  and  it 
was  not  until  March  31  that  the  ship's  car- 
penter was  able  to  fit  the  shallop  "  to  fetch 
all  from  aboard." 

The  picture  of  the  return  of  the  "  May- 
flower "  from  the  New  World  is  a  more  sug- 
gestive and  striking  picture  even  than  the 
departure  of  the  "Mayflower"  from  the 
Old  World.  Inspired  by  faith  and  cheered 
by  the  hope  of  happier  days  and  greater  op- 
portunities in  the  New  World,  the  May- 
flower Company  had  sailed.  Now,  with 
half  their  number  gone,  what  but  faith 
remained?  The  precedent  of  earlier  expe- 
ditions, where  the  mortality  had  been  less 
and  the  survivors  included  no  women  and 
children  in  the  list,  would  seem  to  have 
124 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

fully  justified  the  return  of  some  of  the 
little  company  which  watched  from  the 
shore  the  white  sail  of  the  "  Mayflower"  as 
it  disappeared  beyond  the  horizon,  "as  an 
angel's  wing  through  an  opening  cloud  is 
seen  and  then  withdrawn." 

A  situation  more  discouraging  could 
hardly  be  conceived.  Their  connections 
with  the  Old  World  were  severed.  The 
most  that  could  be  hoped  was  that  before 
another  winter  some  vessel  might  arrive, 
bringing  new  additions  to  their  number 
and  supplies  which  might  enable  them  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  which  surrounded 
them.  But  whether  the  hoped-for  vessel 
would  appear  depended  not  only  upon  the 
perils  of  the  seas,  but  upon  the  ability  of 
the  adventurers  to  furnish  and  equip  an- 
other ship,  and  whether  also  there  could 
be  found  in  England  or  Holland  other  Pil- 
grims to  attempt  the  desperate  undertak- 
ing, in  view  of  the  record  of  the  past 
months.  To  a  degree  which  can  scarcely 
be  overestimated,  then,  the  future  of  the 
World  depended  upon  the  indomita- 
125 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ble  courage  and  fortitude  and  faith  of 
these  fifty  men,  women,  and  children,  a 
company  not  larger  than  that  number 
which  Dermer,  the  last  voyager  to  the 
shores,  had  stated  to  be  the  least  number 
necessary  to  a  successful  settlement. 

If  one  were  seeking  to  best  illustrate  the 
Pilgrim  spirit,  or  what  perhaps  may  be 
termed  as  the  Pilgrim  quality,  he  would 
find  it  in  the  fact  that,  undaunted  by  the 
sufferings  and  losses  of  the  winter,  undis- 
mayed by  the  thought  of  perils  which 
awaited  them  in  the  future,  with  slight 
grounds  for  confidence  in  the  final  issue, 
facing  pestilence  and  famine  and  an  In- 
dian foe,  uncertain  which  of  the  three 
were  most  to  be  feared,  they  stand  upon 
that  hill  overlooking  the  sea  where  their 
dead  rested  in  unmarked  graves,  an  ex- 
ample to  all  ages  of  an  heroic  devotion  to 
duty  as  they  saw  it  and  of  a  faith  which 
could  overcome  all  obstacles. 

Such,  then,  is  one  of  the  lessons  of  the 
Pilgrim  story,  and  one  of  the  examples 
which  the  Pilgrims  have  left  to  a  nation 
126 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

which  counts  them  among  its  founders. 
It  was  Sir  Francis  Bacon  who  said,  "As  in 
the  Arts  and  Sciences,  the  first  founda- 
tion is  of  more  consequence  than  all  the 
improvements  afterwards,  so  in  king- 
doms, the  first  foundation  or  plantation 
is  of  more  noble  dignity  and  merit  than 
all  that  folio  we  th."  A  scene  like  that 
which  marked  the  "  Mayflower's  "  depart- 
ure makes  still  more  clear  the  meaning 
of  those  wise  and  fine  lines. 

The  climatic  and  economic  conditions 
of  the  first  years  of  the  Pilgrim  Company 
at  Plymouth  have  been  preserved  not  only 
in  the  writings  of  Bradford,  but  in  the  re- 
ports of  careful  and  competent  observers 
who  visited  Plymouth  in  the  early  years 
and  noted  their  observations,  and  the 
points  of  view  of  these  different  writers 
naturally  result  in  laying  emphasis  upon 
the  conditions  which  appealed  to  each  the 
most  forcibly.  For  example,  Cushman, 
the  lay  preacher,  simply  describes  the 
general  conditions  as  he  found  them  in 
1621,  "We  have  here  great  peace,  plenty 
127 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

of  the  Gospel,  and  many  sweet  delights 
and  varietie  of  comforts."  William  Hil- 
ton, who  was  one  of  the  passengers  in  the 
"Fortune,"  in  the  letter  first  printed  in 
Smith's  "New  England's  Trials,"  de- 
scribes the  country  as  "  Very  pleasant  and 
temperate.  Great  store  of  fruits  and 
vines  in  great  abundance."  The  woods 
are  full  of  game;  the  lake  and  sea  abound 
in  fish,  but  for  him  the  persuasive  argu- 
ment for  emigration  is,  "We  are  all  free 
holders.  The  rent  day  doth  not  trouble 
us!"  Evidently  having  in  his  mind  the 
contrast  between  this  new  land  and  Eng- 
land, as  Cushman  describes  it  in  his 
"Reasons  and  Considerations,"  touching 
the  lawfulness  of  removing  out  of  England 
into  parts  of  America: 

In  England  the  hospitals  are  full  of  the 
ancient.  .  .  .  And  the  alms  houses  are  filled 
with  old  laborers.  Many  there  are  who  get 
their  living  with  bearing  burdens,  but  more 
are  fain  to  burden  the  land  with  their  whole 
bodies.  Multitudes  get  their  means  of  life 
by  prating,  and  so  do  numbers  more  by 
begging. 

128 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

John  Pory,  who  had  been  Secretary  for 
Virginia,  on  his  return  voyage  from  Vir- 
ginia to  England  in  1622  in  the  ship  "  Dis- 
covery" (Thomas  Jones,  master)  stopped 
at  Plymouth  for  a  brief  visit.  We  have 
the  good  fortune  to  have  preserved  in  the 
John  Carter  Brown  Library  a  manuscript 
copy  of  his  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Southamp- 
ton, giving  an  interesting  and  graphic  pic- 
ture of  that  visit  to  Plymouth.  He  writes: 

Such  is  the  wholesomeness  of  the  place,  the 
Governor  told  me  that  for  the  space  of  one 
whole  year  of  the  two  wherein  they  had  been 
there,  died  not  one  man,  woman  or  child. 
The  healthfulness  is  accompanied  with  much 
plenty,  both  of  fish  and  fowl  every  day  in  the 
year,  as  I  know  no  place  in  the  world  can 
match  it.  He  gives  as  the  reason  for  this 
plenty  the  continual  tranquility  of  the  place, 
being  guarded  on  all  sides  from  the  fury  of  the 
storms,  as  also  the  abundance  of  fish  at  low 
water,  the  bottom  of  the  bay  then  appearing 
as  a  green  meadow  and  lastly,  the  number  of 
freshets  (brooks)  running  into  the  bay,  where 
they  may  refresh  their  thirst. 

And  then  proceeds: 

Now  as  concerning  the  quality  of  the  peo- 
129 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

pie.  How  happy  were  it  for  our  people  in  the 
southern  colony  if  they  were  as  free  from 
wickedness  and  vice  as  these  are  in  this  place. 

Pory  describes  their  fortifications  and 
pays  tribute  to  their  industry,  in  that  they 
have  erected 

a  substantial  pallisado  of  2700  feet  in  com- 
pass, stronger  than  I  have  seen  in  Virginia, 
and  lastly,  by  a  blockhouse  which  they  have 
erected  in  the  highest  part  of  the  town  to 
mount  their  ordnance  upon,  from  whence 
they  command  all  the  harbor. 

While  John  Smith,  a  more  trained  ob- 
server, writing  in  1624,  says: 

At  Plymouth  there  is  about  180  persons, 
some  cattle  and  goats,  but  many  swine  and 
poultry,  32  dwelling  houses  whereof  7  were 
burned  the  last  winter,  and  the  value  of  500 
pounds  in  other  goods.  The  town  is  empaled 
about  an  half  a  mile  in  compass.  In  the  town, 
upon  a  high  mount,  they  have  a  fort,  well 
built  with  wood,  loam  and  stone,  where  is 
planted  their  ordnance.  Also  a  fair  watch- 
tower,  partly  framed  for  the  sentinel.  The 
place  it  seems  is  healthful  for  the  last  three 
years,  notwithstanding  the  great  want  of 
most  necessaries,  there  having  not  one  died  of 
the  first  planters. 

130 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

And  De  Rasieres,  having  been  sent  on 
an  embassy  from  New  Amsterdam  to  the 
Plymouth  colony  in  1627,  in  a  letter  to 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company,  describes  in  detail  the 
careful  preparations  which  had  been  made 
against  hostile  attack  by  sea  or  land,  but 
also  notes  that  the  Pilgrims  give  the  In- 
dian tribes  an  "example  of  better  ordi- 
nances and  a  better  life"  than  the  Dutch 
give  at  Manhattan. 

One  lesson  which  the  example  of  the 
Pilgrims  teaches  is  the  lesson  of  adequate 
military  preparation  for  the  safety  of  the 
state  as  well  as  of  the  little  town.  Pory 
was  impressed  with  the  extraordinary  in- 
dustry which  the  Pilgrims  displayed  in  the 
construction  of  their  military  works,  and 
when  one  considers  how  few  the  number 
of  workers  in  the  early  years  of  the  colony 
and  how  difficult  the  construction  of  so  ex- 
tensive works  when  the  facilities  available 
were  quite  inadequate,  one  is  impressed 
with  the  importance  which  they  gave  to 
this  problem  of  preparation. 
131 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

As  early  as  1622  a  fort  was  built  on 
Burial  Hill,  of  stout  timber  with  a  flat 
roof  and  battlements  on  which  their  ord- 
nance was  mounted  and  where  they  kept 
constant  watch.  As  Secretary  Morton 
says,  "It  was  a  great  work  for  them  to 
do  in  their  weakness  and  in  times  of  want, 
but  the  danger  of  the  time  required  it." 
Not  only  was  a  fort  built,  but  the  town 
was  empaled,  including  the  top  of  the  hill, 
and  with  four  bulwarks  or  jetties,  from 
which  the  whole  town  could  be  defended, 
and  in  three  of  which  were  gates.  The  ex- 
tent of  this  palisade  was  twenty-seven 
hundred  feet  as  Smith  describes  it. 

When  De  Rasieres  arrived  in  1627  the 
construction  work  had  been  very  much 
extended.  The  houses  were  built  of  hewn 
planks  and  the  gardens  enclosed  by 
planks,  so  that  both  the  houses  and  court- 
yards are  arranged  in  good  order.  In  ad- 
dition to  that,  there  was  a  stockade 
against  sudden  attacks,  and  at  the  ends  of 
the  street  were  the  three  wooden  gates. 
On  the  cross-street,  in  the  center  of  the 
132 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

palisade,  was  the  Governor's  house  "be- 
fore which  there  was  a  square  en- 
closure upon  which  four  pedereros  are 
mounted,"  so  as  to  flank  the  streets. 
Then  on  the  hill  is  the  large  square  house 
used  both  as  a  fort  and  a  meeting-house, 
with  flat  roof,  made  of  thick  planks, 
studded  with  oak  beams  on  the  top  of 
which  are  mounted  six  cannon  which 
carry  balls  of  from  four  to  five  pounds, 
and  command  the  surrounding  country. 
The  cannon  command  the  street  and  the 
ford  over  the  brook.  The  fort  stood  upon 
the  military  crest  of  the  hill,  as  it  is 
termed,  and  above  it  on  the  very  top  of 
the  hill  was  placed  the  watch-tower,  from 
which  a  view  could  be  had  of  the  entire 
country,  and  where  later  a  beacon  in  case 
of  Indian  attack  was  lighted. 

When  they  meet  for  service  on  Sundays 
or  holidays  "they  assemble  by  beat  of 
drum,  each  with  his  musket  or  firelock,  in 
front  of  the  captain's  door."  Then  in  or- 
der, three  abreast,  led  by  a  sergeant  with- 
^  out  drum-beat,  they  march  up  the  hill  to 

133 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  fort.  Behind  comes  the  Governor,  on 
his  right  hand  the  preacher  with  his  cloak, 
and  on  his  left  hand  the  captain  with  his 
side  arms.  And  so  they  march  in  good 
order  and  each  sets  his  arms  down  near 
him.  Thus  they  are  constantly  on  their 
guard,  night  and  day.  Above  the  fort 
floats  the  English  flag.  Every  able-bodied 
citizen  is  trained  in  the  use  of  arms,  and  in 
case  of  sudden  alarm,  his  post  is  assigned 
him.  In  time  of  public  danger,  under  the 
Act  of  1675  it  was  ordered  that  whoever 
shall  shoot  off  a  gun  on  any  unnecessary 
occasion,  or  at  any  game,  except  an  In- 
dian or  a  wolf,  shall  forfeit  five  shillings. 
The  fort  was  several  times  repaired  and 
enlarged,  and  finally,  just  before  King 
Philip's  War,  was  rebuilt.  It  formed  a 
square  one  hundred  feet  on  each  side  with 
palisades  ten  and  one  half  feet  high,  large 
enough  to  receive,  if  necessary,  all  the 
citizens  in  case  of  attack.  There  was  no 
danger  of  a  shortage  of  water,  for  a  flow- 
ing spring  was  located  within  the  enclo- 
sure on  the  slope  of  the  hill. 
134 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  no  hostile 
shot  was  ever  fired  from  the  guns  upon 
the  fort.  Occasionally  an  alarm  gun 
sounded,  but  no  attack  was  ever  made 
upon  the  homes  enclosed  within  the  pali- 
sade, nor  was  any  attack  ever  made  by 
the  Indians  upon  the  homes  within  the 
limits  of  the  town  of  Plymouth  until  in 
King  Philip's  War  a  few  houses  were  de- 
stroyed in  the  village  of  Chiltonville. 

But  the  thoroughness  of  the  prepara- 
tion, the  care  given  to  every  detail  of  de- 
fense, the  compulsory  training  in  the  use 
of  military  arms,  the  requirement  of  the 
law  under  which  it  was  necessary  for  each 
citizen  to  equip  himself  with  musket  and 
ammunition,  and  the  fact  that  nothing 
was  omitted  which  would  tend  to  secure 
the  safety  of  the  infant  colony  during  all 
those  years,  is  a  sufficient  explanation,  if 
any  were  needed,  why  they  escaped  the 
perils  of  Indian  attack.  Both  treaty  and 
preparedness  they  found  were  necessary 
for  security  against  the  horrors  of  war 
for  the  maintenance  of  an  enduring 
135 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

peace,   and    "useless   each   without   the 
other." 

There  are  two  political  and  legal  instru- 
ments which  measurably  shaped  and 
directed  the  development  of  the  Pilgrim 
movement,  and  which  in  some  important 
respects  may  be  regarded  as  marking  the 
technical  beginning  and  close  of  the  inde- 
pendency of  town  and  colony. 

First,  the  Bradford  patent  of  1629,  and 
secondly,  the  New  England  Confederacy 
of  1643.  The  Pilgrim  story,  as  related  by 
historian  and  annalist,  is  mainly  the  rec- 
ord of  the  lives  and  labors  of  individuals, 
the  details  of  municipal  action,  the  estab- 
lishment of  little  centers  of  church  and 
corporate  life,  the  relations  of  the  early 
settlers  with  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood,  or  with  the  new 
settlements  of  later  emigrants  in  planta- 
tions somewhat  remote  from  Plymouth. 
These  two  incidents  stand  out  somewhat 
apart  in  their  significance,  operation,  and 
effect. 

136 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  Bradford  Patent 

Prior  to  the  issue  of  the  patent  from  the 
president  and  council  for  New  England  to 
Bradford  and  his  associates,  dated  Janu- 
ary 13,  1629,  the  entries  in  the  Colony 
Records  relate  mainly  to  transfers  of  land 
and  shares  in  cattle,  the  only  important 
general  legislation  being  the  court  order 
of  December  17, 1623,  providing  for  a  jury 
trial  in  civil  and  criminal  matters;  the 
order  of  the  29th  of  May,  1625,  prohibit- 
ing the  sale  or  transport  of  planks,  boards, 
or  frames  for  houses  and  vessels,  which 
may  tend  to  the  destruction  of  timber, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Governor  and 
Council;  and  the  orders  relating  to  trans- 
portation of  corn,  beans,  or  peas  without 
the  colony,  and  providing  that  no  handi- 
craftsmen should  use  their  trade  for  any 
strangers  or  foreigners  till  the  necessity  of 
the  colony  be  served. 

The  Bradford  patent  recites  that  Brad- 
ford and  his  associates  have  for  nine  years 
in  New  England  and  have  inhabited 
137 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  planted  a  town  called  by  the  name  of 
"New  Plymouth,"  and  "by  the  special 
providence  of  God  and  their  extraordinary 
care  and  industry,  they  have  increased 
their  plantation  to  near  300  people  and 
are  upon  all  occasions  able  to  relieve  any 
new  planters  or  others,  His  Majesty's 
subjects,  who  may  fall  upon  that  coast." 

The  territorial  limits  of  the  tract 
granted  by  the  patent  includes  substan- 
tially all  of  Plymouth  County  and  all  cf 
Bristol  and  Barnstable  Counties  and  the 
towns  of  Bristol,  Warren,  Barrington, 
Little  Compton,  and  Tiverton  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  further  includes  a  grant  of 
fifteen  miles  on  each  side  of  the  Kennebec 
River,  on  which  was  the  Pilgrim  trading- 
post  for  trade  with  the  Indians.  It  is  a 
grant  to-  Bradford,  his  heirs  and  assigns, 
subject  to  a  rental  to  the  King  of  one  fifth 
of  the  gold  and  silver  within  the  territory 
and  one  fifth  thereof  to  the  President  and 
Council.  It  provides  and  authorizes  an 
incorporation  of  the  inhabitants,  with 
liberty  "to  frame  and  make  orders,  ordi- 
138 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

nances  and  constitutions,"  for  the  better 
government  of  their  affairs  here  and  also 
in  New  England,  and  that  the  same  may 
be  put  in  execution  by  such  officers  and 
ministers  as  he  or  they  shall  authorize  and 
depute,  provided  that  such  laws  and  or- 
ders be  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land or  to  the  frame  of  government  by  the 
President  and  Council  to  be  hereafter 
established. 

In  March,  1641,  Governor  Bradford 
surrenders  "into  the  hands  of  the  whole 
Court,  consisting  of  the  free  men  of  this 
corporation  of  New  Plymouth,  all  the 
right  and  title,  power,  authoritie,  privi- 
leges, immunities  and  freedoms  granted 
in  the  said  letters  patent,"  with  some 
small  reservations  for  the  benefit  of  the 
old  planters. 

The  memorandum  upon  the  instru- 
ment shows  that  this  surrender  was  made 
by  Bradford  in  public  court  to  Nathaniel 
Sowther,  then  Secretary  of  the  colony, 
who  was  especially  authorized  by  the 
£,ouri  to  receive  the  same,  together  with 
139 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  letters  patent  in  the  name  and  for  the 
use  of  the  whole  body  of  freemen.  The 
General  Court  was  composed  of  all  the 
freemen  of  the  colony;  they  chose  the  offi- 
cers of  the  government,  made  the  laws, 
and  the  first  list  of  freemen,  under  date  of 
1633,  includes  sixty-eight  names.  This 
was  the  body  politic  of  the  Plymouth 
Colony. 

The  officers  were  a  Governor  and  seven 
assistants.  There  was  no  deputy  governor 
until  1636,  when  the  Governor  was  au- 
thorized to  appoint  one  of  the  assistants 
to  govern  during  his  absence,  and  not  till 
1679  was  a  deputy  governor  actually 
chosen. 

This  Bradford  patent  of  1629  uses  the 
words  "Town  of  New  Plymouth,"  and  is 
the  earliest  reference  to  Plymouth  as  a 
town.  In  the  Colony  laws  of  1632  Plym- 
outh is  referred  to  as  a  town,  but  the  first 
entry  in  the  Town  Records  which  bears 
any  date,  the  prior  entries  relating  only 
to  the  earmarks  of  the  cattle,  is  March, 
1637,  and  the  first  record  of  a  meeting  of 
140 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  townsmen  of  New  Plymouth  at  which 
"  all  the  inhabitants  from  Jones  River 
to  the  Eele  River  were  present"  was  in 
July,  1638,  to  consider  the  disposition 
of  the  stock  given  by  James  Sherley,  a 
London  merchant,  to  the  "poore"  of 
Plymouth. 

Under  the  Provincial  laws  it  was  pro- 
vided, in  1775,  that  "Every  incorporated 
district  shall  henceforth  be  and  shall  be 
holden,  taken  and  intended  to  be  a  town 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,"  and  under 
the  Acts  of  1785  it  was  provided  that 
"The  inhabitants  of  every  town  within 
this  government  are  hereby  declared  to  be 
a  body  politic  and  corporate." 

The  fact  is  that,  as  the  Supreme  Court 
later  held,1  "Towns  become  in  effect  mu- 
nicipal or  quasi-corporations  without  any 
formal  act  of  incorporation."  Thus  the 
date  of  the  establishment  of  Duxbury  is 
given  as  1637,  of  Hingham  as  1635,  of  Hull 
as  1644,  of  Marshfield  as  1642,  and  of 
Bridgewater  as  1656.  The  immediate  ef- 

1  122  Mass.  p.  349. 
141 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

feet  of  the  patent  was  firmly  to  establish 
the  colony  on  a  more  secure  and  more 
clearly  defined  foundation  and  to  create 
a  well-regulated  body  politic  and  permit 
a  better-organized  form  of  government 
than  had  before  been  practical. 

The  second  event  was  the  establish- 
ment, in  1643,  fourteen  years  later,  of  the 
New  England  Confederacy,  the  union  of 
the  four  larger  colonies,  far-reaching  in  its 
operation  and  results. 

The  New  England  Confederacy 
By  1643  the  population  of  New  England 
had  increased  to  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand persons,  and  some  three  hundred 
ships  carrying  four  thousand  families  had 
come  over  from  England  and  Holland  to 
the  New  World.  The  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony,  lying  immediately  north  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  had  been  founded  in 
1629.  To  the  south  and  west  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  the  colonies  of  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven.  In  addition  to  these 
four  colonies  were  two  other  modest  cen- 
142 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ters  of  English  population,  Providence 
and  Rhode  Island.  And  north  and  north- 
east of  Massachusetts  in  that  then  distant 
territory,  now  divided  into  the  States  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  were  the 
little  independent  settlements  of  Dover, 
Exeter,  and  others.  But  the  important 
colonies  in  numbers  and  wealth  were  the 
four  colonies  above  mentioned,  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Haven. 

A  combination  among  those  colonies 
was  proposed  in  order  to  prevent  a  gen- 
eral conspiracy  of  the  Indians  against  the 
English  in  all  parts  and  to  furnish  the 
necessary  means  to  secure  the  protection 
of  the  settlers.  Two  delegates  from  each 
of  the  four  colonies  met  at  Boston  to  pre- 
pare the  articles  of  confederation,  "the 
model  and  prototype,"  says  John  Quincy 
Adams,  "of  the  North  American  Confed- 
eracy of  1774." 

They  agree  that  the  name  shall  hence- 
forth be  the  "United  Colonies  of  New 
^England."  In  the  event  of  peril  each  col- 
143 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ony  was  to  send  its  quota  of  men,  suffi- 
ciently armed  and  provided  for  the  service 
in  the  proportion  at  first  of  one  hundred 
men  as  Massachusetts^  share  and  from 
each  of  the  other  three  colonies  forty-five 
men. 

-  For  managing  the  affairs  of  the  whole 
confederation  two  commissioners  from 
each  jurisdiction  were  chosen  with  full 
power  from  their  several  general  courts  to 
determine  the  affairs  of  war  and  peace, 
the  number  of  men  for  war,  the  division  of 
supplies  and  all  things  "  which  are  proper 
concomitants  or  consequences  of  such  a 
confederation,  for  amitie,  offence  and  de- 
fence; not  intermeddling  with  the  gov- 
ernmente  of  any  of  the  jurisdictions." 

By  the  eighth  article  of  the  combina- 
tion it  was  agreed  that  the  commissioners 
should  endeavor  to  "frame  and  establish 
agreements  and  orders  in  general  cases  of 
a  civil  nature,  .  .  .  for  the  preservation  of 
peace  among  themselves  and  preventing 
as  much  as  may  be  all  occasions  of  war  or 
difference  with  others,"  and  provision  was 
144 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

made  for  the  extradition  of  fugitive  serv- 
ants or  prisoners  from  one  colony  to  the 
others.  A  similar  provision  is  found  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,1  later 
superseded  by  the  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment. 

On  the  7th  of  September,  1643,  the 
General  Court  of  Plymouth,  having  ap- 
proved the  combination,  it  was  ratified  in 
its  behalf  by  its  representatives,  Winslow 
and  Collier,  and  thereafter  the  confedera- 
tion in  form  and  substance  continued  un- 
til 1686,  at  which  time  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
appeared  with  his  commission  from  James 
II  as  Governor  of  all  New  England. 

From  the  date  of  the  organization  of  the 
confederacy,  Plymouth's  influence  in  the 
important  questions  of  peace  and  war  was 
limited  by  the  authority  vested  by  the 
combination  in  the  other  colonies  of  the 
confederacy.  By  the  year  1644  the  popu- 
lation of  the  town  of  Plymouth  had  been 
reduced  to  the  estimated  number  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  The  more  fertile  soil, 

*  1  Art.  iv,  Sec.  2. 

145 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  greater  opportunities  for  trade  which 
the  establishment  of  settlements  from 
New  Hampshire  to  Connecticut  per- 
mitted, had  been  a  stimulus  to  emigration 
from  Plymouth,  and  had  checked  the 
growth  of  that  settlement.  Meetings  and 
conferences  were  held  as  to  the  desirabil- 
ity of  the  removal  of  the  church  to  some 
other  fit  place  which  might  more  conven- 
iently and  comfortably  receive  the  whole 
"with  such  others  as  might  come  to 
them." 

It  was  first  determined  to  remove  to  a 
place  called  "Nauset,"  which  was  incor- 
porated in  1646,  and  its  name  changed  to 
"Eastham"  in  1651.  But  further  investi- 
gation showed  that  that  place  was  remote 
and  not  competent  to  receive  the  whole 
body  of  the  church.  But  many  who  re- 
solved upon  removal  took  advantage  of 
the  agreement  and  moved  away,  and  as 
Bradford  quaintly  puts  it: 

Thus  was  this  poor  church  left  like  an  an- 
cient mother,  grown  old  and  forgotten  of  her 
children,  though  not  in  their  affections  yet  in 

140 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

regard  of  their  bodily  presence  and  personal 
helpfulness.  Her  ancient  members  being 
most  of  them  worn  away  by  death  and  those 
of  later  times  being  like  children,  translated 
into  other  families,  and  she,  like  a  widow,  left 
only  to  trust  in  God.  Thus  she  that  had  made 
many  rich  became  herself  poor. 

The  establishment  of  the  New  England 
Confederacy,  the  division  of  the  ancient 
church,  the  loss  of  population  and  wealth 
in  the  town  of  Plymouth,  marks  the  close 
of  the  important  influence  which  Plym- 
outh and  the  Pilgrim  had  in  other  years 
exerted  in  the  affairs  of  New  England. 
But  no  story  would  be  complete  or  ade- 
quate which  failed  to  refer  to  some  inci- 
dents, well  worth  remembering,  which 
illustrate  the  Pilgrim  idea  and  policy  and 
teach  their  helpful  lesson  in  the  considera- 
tion of  some  of  the  problems  of  the  present 
day. 

The  real  use  of  history  is  not  limited  to 
a  mere  recital  of  past  events  without 
reference  to  their  connection  with,  or  in- 
fluence upon,  the  present.  We  are  all 
jnore  interested  in  the  present  and  the 
147 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

immediate  future  than  in  the  past;  "that 
at  least  is  secure." 

History  is  the  recital  of  past  experience 
of  individuals  and  nations,  and  there  is  no 
way  of  judging  of  the  future  but  by  the  past 
and  that  which  the  past  has  revealed  to  us. 

I  ask  your  attention  to  some  considera- 
tion of  the  effect  of  the  Pilgrims'  lives  and 
labors,  and  of  the  lessons  which  may  be 
learned  from  their  policy  and  example. 

Upon  the  stately  gate  of  the  great 
World's  Exposition  at  Chicago,  was  in- 
scribed the  impressive  line: 

Toleration  in  Religion  the  best  fruit  of  the  last 
four  centuries. 

That  was  America's  verdict  of  the  value 
of  that  gift  to  humanity  and  civilization 
which  those  centuries  have  brought.  The 
same  hand  which  wrote  the  inscription  in 
Chicago  drafted  the  inscription  upon  the 
window  of  the  church  at  Plymouth: 

Religious  Liberty,  the  fruit  of  Pilgrim  sowing. 

These  fine  phrases  by  President  Eliot  fe- 
licitously express  the  thought  that  the  re- 
148 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

ligious  liberty  and  toleration  which  those 
centuries  have  made  possible  were  the 
Pilgrim  ideals. 

It  is  true  that  in  practice  or  in  precept 
the  fullest  expression  of  that  ideal  cannot 
be  found  within  the  limits  of  the  Plym- 
outh Colony.  Roger  Williams  carried 
the  doctrine  of  absolute  toleration  to  its 
logical  conclusion  and  justified  a  broader 
liberty  than  many  a  Pilgrim  leader  was 
ready  to  accept.  But  the  recognition  of 
this  principle  of  toleration,  even  if  not 
pressed  to  its  logical  extreme,  is  their  leg- 
acy to  a  nation.  The  full  development  of 
the  idea  into  a  principle  of  law  and  prac- 
tice came  as  a  result  of  years  of  effort  and 
thought  and  study,  but  is  a  necessary  re- 
sult of  the  Pilgrim  example. 

When  in  other  colonies  for  a  time  re- 
ligious leaders  taught,  as  did  Mather,  that 
"Anti  Christ  has  not  a  more  probable 
way  to  advance  his  kingdom  of  darkness 
than  by  a  toleration  of  all  religions,"  and 
civil  governors  held  with  Governor  Dud- 
in  Massachusetts  Bay  that  "It  was 
149 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  duty  of  men  of  God  in  courts  and 
churches 

"To  watch 

O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 
To  poison  all  with  heresee  and  vice" 

—  a  little  candle  lighted  at  Plymouth 
burned  brightly  through  the  darkness  and 
the  gloom.  The  constitution  of  the  great 
States  and  greater  Union,  of  which  they 
laid  the  corner-stone,  now  expresses  that 
fundamental  principle  of  the  right  of  in- 
dividual judgment  in  matters  of  con- 
science and  of  the  duty  of  the  State  to 
recognize  and  enforce  that  right  whenever 
challenged,  and  this  principle  and  duty  is 
the  necessary  result  of  the  practical  de- 
velopment and  application  of  the  Pilgrim 
faith. 

:  The  example  of  the  Pilgrim  Church  and 
the  teachings  of  Dr.  Fuller,  who  not  only 
practiced  medicine,  but  also  taught  the 
congregational  polity  of  the  Plymouth 
church  when  he  visited  the  early  settle- 
ments in  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  were 
150 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

contributing,  if  not  controlling,  factors  in 
the  establishment  of  the  independent 
churches  in  the  Bay  Colony  and  later  fol- 
lowed in  the  plantations  in  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven. 

Church  government  as  well  as  town 
government  was  necessarily  affected  by 
local  conditions  and  environment.  It  was 
the  natural  form  of  government  in  those 
little  communities  and  which  necessity 
seemed  to  compel  as  best  adapted  to  meet 
the  present  requirements  and  everyday 
needs.  In  the  election  and  ordination  by 
each  congregation  of  its  own  minister,  in 
the  adoption  by  each  congregation  of  a 
separate  and  distinct  covenant,  though 
bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  each  other, 
and  in  the  order  of  public  worship  the 
other  churches  of  these  early  New  Eng- 
land settlements  followed  the  Plymouth 
form  of  Independency.  "Into  this  Con- 
gregationalism," says  Dr.  Walker,  the 
Plymouth  physician,  Dr.  Fuller  was  "more 
than  any  other  man  the  means  of  trans- 
forming New  England  Puritanism." 
151 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

The  influence  of  Plymouth  in  this  result 
was  early  recognized,  and  is  supported  by 
contemporaneous  authorities  and  is  a  mat- 
ter, therefore,  of  historic  record  and  not  of 
conjecture  merely. 

Congregationalism  finds  its  earliest  ex- 
ponent in  New  England  in  that  first 
meeting-house  on  the  slope  of  Burial  Hill. 

At  the  basis  of  that  first  foundation  or 
plantation  here,  lay  the  great  ideal  that 
their  migration  was  a  transplanting  of  the 
family  and  the  home  and  not  merely  of 
individuals,  as  had  been  the  case  in  former 
expeditions  to  the  New  World.  The  unit 
of  the  Pilgrim  Company  was  the  family. 
As  they  gathered  on  the  Mayflower's 
deck,  the  members  of  each  family  stand 
side  by  side;  when  the  allotment  of  lands 
was  first  made  in  Plymouth,  it  was  an 
allotment  to  designated  families.  Home 
and  family,  then,  were  central  ideas,  pri- 
mary units  of  the  Pilgrim  Company.  The 
English  word  "home"  has  no  exact 
equivalent  in  any  other  language;  it  has 
152 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

no  synonym  in  ours.  No  short  phrase  ex- 
presses its  full  meaning.  It  conveys  not 
merely  the  idea  of  residence,  but  of  per- 
manence; the  idea  not  merely  of  a  place 
for  the  collection  of  its  comforts  and  neces- 
sities which  supply  the  present  needs  of  the 
members  of  the  home,  but  also  the  attach- 
ments, the  memories,  the  associations  of 
the  past  and  the  hopes  for  the  future. 

The  expeditions  to  New  England  in 
former  years  were  composed  of  men  only, 
sailors,  soldiers,  explorers,  gallant  and  ad- 
venturous, fit  types  of  the  proud  race 
from  which  they  sprung.  They  sail  in 
search  of  fame  and  fortune,  inspired  by 
the  hope  that  when  these  were  won,  they 
would  return  with  full  hands  to  the  old 
homes  which  they  were  leaving  behind. 
Now  the  Pilgrim  Company  was  animated 
by  no  such  hope.  They  knew  that  there 
was  no  alternative  save  victory  or  death. 
To  the  Pilgrims  the  presence  of  the  women 
and  children  on  the  "  Mayflower,"  tossed 
about  by  the  boisterous  waves  of  the 
/stormy  Atlantic,  and  their  presence  on 
153 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  Plymouth  hills  and  shore  in  that 
gloomy  winter  when  half  the  Pilgrim 
Company  perished  "before  the  pestilence 
that  walketh  in  darkness  and  the  destruc- 
tion that  wasteth  at  noonday,"  was  an 
appeal  more  persuasive  and  tender  and 
inspiring  than  any  other  to  lead  them  to 
the  highest  achievements  of  courage, 
fortitude,  and  faith. 

This  fact,  that  the  civil  polity  which 
they  founded  had  as  its  central  idea  the 
family  life  and  home,  that  the  responsi- 
bilities which  they  assumed,  the  obli- 
gations and  the  burdens  which  rested 
heavily  upon  them,  depended  principally 
upon  the  relation  of  the  individual  Pil- 
grim to  the  family  which  he  loved  and  to 
which  he  owed  allegiance  and  loyalty, 
was  the  significant  and  important  differ- 
ence which  marks  the  Pilgrim  migration 
from  those  which  had  preceded  it.  This 
fundamental  idea  of  the  home  or  family  as 
the  unit  in  the  State  has  been  of  far- 
reaching  influence  in  the  development  of 
New  England. 

154 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

It  is  true  that  the  suffrage  was  a  man- 
hood suffrage,  qualified,  limited,  re- 
stricted, but  widening  as  the  years  went 
by.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  this  suffrage  was  also  a  representa- 
tive suffrage  in  which  the  householder  had 
and  exercised  the  right.  There  is  a  fa- 
miliar passage  from  an  English  orator, 
based  upon  a  judicial  opinion  of  Sir  Ed- 
ward Coke: 

The  poorest  man  may  in  his  cottage  bid  de- 
fiance to  all  the  forces  of  the  Crown.  It  may 
be  frail;  its  roof  may  shake;  the  wind  may 
blow  through  it  and  the  storms  may  enter, 
the  rain  may  enter,  but  the  King  of  England 
cannot  enter;  all  his  forces  dare  not  cross  the 
threshold  of  the  ruined  tenement. 

That  passage  admirably  expresses  that 
central  idea  of  the  part  which  the  home 
played  in  the  community  life  when  legis- 
lation was  solely  directed  to  its  security 
and  protection,  and  to  its  freedom  from 
unreasonable  and  illegal  search.  In  the 
changing  conditions  of  the  present  that 
earlier  idea  is  losing  ground.  If  it  be  true 
new  occasions  teach  new  duties,  it  is 
155 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

no  less  true  that  time  does  not  always 
make  ancient  good  uncouth.  The  empha- 
sis which  is  now  laid  upon  some  modern 
theories  of  government,  under  the  opera- 
tion of  which  the  idea  of  representation 
fades,  and  the  policy  is  established  that 
the  husband  and  father  shall  no  longer 
represent  the  wife  or  daughter  or  home,  is 
likely  to  bring  in  its  train  enduring  re- 
'  suits  whose  effect  and  character  cannot 
now  be  foreseen. 

I  have  no  intention  of  entering  into  the 
vexed  question  which  that  last  sentence 
perhaps  suggests.  I  desire  merely  to 
note,  as  a  student  of  history,  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  old  idea  of  representative 
government  and  the  fast-growing  tend- 
ency to  deny  some  earlier  principles  which 
lay  at  the  basis  of  New  England,  polity. 
The  operation,  and  effect  of  this  polity 
has  played  its  part  in  the  development  of 
State  and  Nation,  and  in  spite  of  the  pres- 
ent pessimistic  views  of  existing  conditions 
and  gloomier  predictions  for  the  future, 
has  brought  to  humanity  help  and  oppor- 
156 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

tunity  for  which  the  centuries  which  have 
passed  furnished  no  precedent  and  no 
parallel. 

Among  the  great  Pilgrim  ideals,  is  this 
ideal  of  home  and  family  as  the  center  of 
the  life  in  the  New  World,  for  whose  pro- 
tection, development,  and  permanence  not 
only  forts  and  palisades  were  built,  but 
laws  and  ordinances  were  also  enacted. 

The  Treaty 

On  the  first  of  April,  1621,  occurred 
that  scene  in  Pilgrim  history  in  some  re- 
spects the  most  interesting,  significant, 
and  important  of  all  that  the  history  of 
the  time  preserves. 

It  is  a  fair  day,  as  the  chronicler  de- 
scribes it,  and  the  warm  sunshine  of  the 
approaching  spring  illumines  the  hills  and 
shores.  The  sun  had  barely  passed  its 
meridian  when  there  appear  upon  the  first 
street  the  two  friendly  Indians,  Samoset 
and  Squanto,  familiar  names,  the  guides 
and  interpreters  of  the  Pilgrims.  They 
^brought  the  startling  message  that  Massa- 
157 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

soit  and  sixty  of  his  men  were  fast  ap- 
proaching. In  an  hour  the  Indians  appear 
in  plain  sight  on  Watson's  Hill.  The  Pil- 
grim Company  assembles  on  the  first 
street  and  on  the  summit  of  that  hill  the 
more  numerous  band  of  Indian  warriors. 
Squanto  goes  over  from  the  Pilgrims  to 
the  Indians  as  their  interpreter  and  re- 
turns and  reports  that  as  a  condition  of 
the  friendly  visit  there  must  be  sent  to  the 
Indian  chief  a  messenger  and  a  hostage. 
For  that  difficult  and  dangerous  task 
Winslow  is  selected. 

In  imagination  you  see  that  gallant 
figure,  his  sword  by  his  side,  his  armor 
flashing  in  the  western  sun,  his  arms  filled 
with  presents,  a  messenger  of  peace  and 
good-will,  a  hostage  among  savage  foes,  as 
unattended  he  crosses  the  shallow  brook 
by  the  ancient  ford,  ascends  the  hill,  and 
now  disappears  among  the  trees.  The  anx- 
ious moments  slowly  pass,  and  now  from 
the  waiting  Pilgrims  the  cry  goes  up, 
"They  come!  They  come!" 

In  single  file,  with  silent  step,  one  after 
158 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

another  of  the  Indian  warriors  comes  into 
view  until  twenty  are  seen  marching 
slowly  down  the  hill  slope,  and  then,  with 
"the  roll  of  the  stirring  drum  and  the 
trumpet  that  sings  of  fame,"  the  Pilgrim 
captain  and  Master  Williamson  and  six 
musketeers  march  down  the  first  street 
to  meet  at  the  brook  the  Indian  band. 
And  now  they  turn,  and  Pilgrim  and  In- 
dian, side  by  side,  march  up  the  hill  and 
down  the  ancient  street.  It  is  a  striking 
and  suggestive  picture,  this  first  formal 
meeting  here  in  Plymouth  of  the  oncom- 
ing and  the  vanishing  races.  As  the  sav- 
age figures  pass,  the  timid  children  shrink 
more  closely  to  their  mothers'  sides  and 
the  stout  hearts  of  the  sturdy  Pilgrims 
beat  more  quickly  as  they  grasp  their 
muskets  and  their  eyes  rest  on  those  anx- 
ious faces. 

It  is  a  strange  and  stirring  sight  as  an 
eye-witness  of  that  scene  describes  it. 
The  tall,  stately  figures  of  the  Indian 
warriors  in  the  prime  of  their  manhood, 
all  strong  men,  grave  of  countenance, 
159 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

spare  of  speech,  their  bows  and  arrows 
laid  aside,  some  wearing  skins  over  their 
shoulders,  and  some  only  a  girdle  about 
their  loins.  On  the  chief's  neck  rested  a 
great  string  of  white  bone  beads  from 
which,  over  his  dark  chest,  hung  a  long 
knife  which  glistened  in  the  sunlight;  a 
bag  of  tobacco  hung  on  his  neck  behind, 
and  in  his  hand  he  carried  the  pipe  of 
peace.  His  face  was  painted  a  deep  red 
like  the  color  of  a  mulberry,  and  his  fol- 
lowers' faces  were  marked  and  crossed,  or 
wholly  colored  writh  black  and  yellow  and 
white  and  red  paint. 

And  now  they  enter  the  house  then 
building  on  the  slope  of  Leyden  Street, 
and  seated  on  cushions  and  a  green  rug 
make  the  famous  treaty.  Its  clear  provi- 
sions bound  them  not  to  injure  any  of  the 
Pilgrims,  and  if  any  one  offended  them  the 
offender  was  to  be  sent  to  Plymouth  for 
punishment.  In  case  any  of  the  Pilgrims' 
tools  were  taken,  they  were  to  be  restored ; 
if  war  were  made  on  either  Pilgrim  or 
Indian,  the  other  would  promptly  come 
ICO 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

to  his  assistance.  To  these  conditions  of 
peace  they  pledged  the  union  of  the  neigh- 
boring tribes.  Unarmed  each  would  visit 
the  other,  and  in  return  the  Pilgrims  gave 
assurance  that  King  James,  if  the  Indians 
kept  the  pledge,  would  esteem  them  as 
friendly  allies. 

When  the  treaty  was  concluded,  the 
Governor  escorts  the  returning  Indians  to 
the  brook,  and  another  troop  appears 
with  Quadaquina,  the  king's  brother,  as 
their  leader.  But  Winslow  still  lingers  as 
a  hostage  in  the  Indian  camp  and  the 
lengthening  shadows  fall  before  our  mes- 
senger returns.  "Samoset  and  Squanto 
slept  that  night  in  Plymouth ;  and  the  king 
and  all  his  men  lay  all  night  in  the  woods 
not  above  half  an  English  mile  from  us, 
and  all  their  wives  and  women  with 
them,"  says  the  chronicler  of  that  day, 
while  the  watchful  sentinels  passed  to  and 
fro. 

The  provisions  of  the  treaty  were  faith- 
fully kept  for  many  a  year.  It  was  not  un- 
til those  who  met  and  feasted  and  pledged 
161 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

the  peace  that  day  had  long  passed  away 
that  within  the  limits  of  the  old  colony 
the  burning  homes  of  the  colonists,  a  pil- 
lar of  flame  by  night  and  smoke  by  day, 
marked  the  course  of  the  Indian  foray. 
And  Philip  succeeds  Massasoit  before  the 
blood  of  New  England's  sons  fatten  the 
cornfields,  or  the  war-whoop  awakens 
the  sleep  of  the  cradle. 

It  was  a  high  tribute  which  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth  Colony  fifty-four  years 
later  paid  to  the  early  colonists  when  he 
justly  said  that  the  "  English  did  not  pos- 
sess one  foot  of  land  in  this  colony  but 
what  was  fairly  obtained  by  honest  pur- 
chase of  the  Indian  proprietors."  Then 
a  solemn  treaty  was  not  regarded  as  "a 
mere  scrap  of  paper." 

The  agreement  with  the  merchant  ad- 
venturers involved  and  required  a  com- 
mon holding  of  property  by  the  settlers 
for  the  term  of  seven  years,  at  which  time 
the  real  and  personal  property  so  held  in 
common  would  be  divided  in  certain 
1G2 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

agreed  proportions,  as  defined  in  the  pre- 
ceding lecture,  among  the  members  of  the 
company.  But  the  conditions  required, 
in  the  first  instance,  that  immediate  pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  the  housing  of 
the  people. 

The  first  building  to  be  constructed 
would  naturally  be  a  common  house 
adapted  for  meetings,  for  the  storage  of 
common  supplies,  and  for  a  place  of  resi- 
dence on  shore  while  the  private  dwell- 
ings were  being  constructed.  For  the 
orderly  housing  of  the  people  it  was  nec- 
essary that  they  should  be  divided  into 
families  or  households,  which  as  Bradford 
groups  them  were  twenty -four  in  number, 
but  when  the  land  was  measured  on  Janu- 
ary 7, 1621,  provision  was  made  for  all  the 
single  men  to  join  with  some  family,  so 
that  fewer  houses  might  be  built,  and  the 
number  was  then  reduced  to  nineteen 
families.  The  record  in  Bradford's  hand- 
writing of  the  meersteads  and  garden  plots 
which  were  first  laid  out  shows  the  first 
street,  now  Leyden  Street,  running  from 
163 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRBIS 

the  hill  on  the  west  to  the  sea  on  the  east, 
and  on  the  south  side  of  that  street  seven 
lots.  The  great  mortality  of  the  first  win- 
ter wiped  out  entirely  four  households, 
four  others  entirely  escaped  the  sickness, 
and  of  the  remaining  sixteen  households 
each  lost  one  or  more  of  its  members.  So 
that  these  seven  houses  on  the  south 
side  of  Leyden  Street  represented  housing 
facilities  for  approximately  seven  persons 
each,  which  practically  included  the  sur- 
viving members  of  the  Pilgrim  Company. 
In  1623  there  was  assigned  to  every  fam- 
ily a  parcel  of  land  in  proportion  to  the 
numbers,  but  only  for  present  use.  The 
next  year  the  demand  became  insistent 
for  a  permanent  division  of  land,  which 
should  grant  not  merely  its  present  use, 
but  such  an  absolute  title  as  would  insure 
its  transmission  by  inheritance;  and  to 
every  person  was  given  one  acre  of  land. 
The  allotments  show  that  the  division 
was  made  in  accordance  not  only  with  the 
then  present  numbers  in  each  family;  but 
also  in  some  instances  a  larger  number  of 
164 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

acres,  representing  undoubtedly  the  origi- 
nal members  of  the  family  or  the  contribu- 
tions in  money  which  had  been  made  and 
in  respect  of  which  an  additional  share 
was  received  in  the  allotment.  The  total 
number  of  acres  distributed  among  those 
who  came  in  the  "  Mayflower  "  was  sixty- 
nine.  Thirty -three  acres  were  allotted  to 
those  who  came  in  the  "  Fortune,"  and 
ninety -five  acres  to  those  who  came  in  the 
"  Ann  "  and  the  "  Little  James,"  the  emi- 
grants in  those  four  ships  being  designated 
as  the  "first  comers."  This  division  made 
an  allotment  of  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  acres  in  all.  It  was  probably  cleared 
land  and  was  located  along  the  water- 
front. 

Speaking  generally,  these  lands  are  in- 
cluded within  a  strip  extending  some  two 
miles  along  the  shore  and  not  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  wide  in  the  widest  part, 
and  were  undoubtedly  the  most  available, 
convenient,  and  easily  cultivated  of  the 
lands  adapted  to  agricultural  purposes  in 
first  settlement,  and  were  held  in  con- 
165 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

formity  with  the  provisions  of  the  patent, 
according  to  the  manor  of  East  Green- 
wich, except  that,  as  De  Rasieres  noted 
in  his  letter  describing  his  visit  in  1627, 
"The  eldest  son  has  an  acknowledgment 
for  his  seniority  of  birth,  which  secured  to 
him  a  double  share." 

Now  this  division  of  lots  was  made 
necessary  by  what  some  are  pleased  to 
call  the  "infirmity  of  human  nature,"  but 
which  in  fact  appears  in  history  as  the 
most  potent  and  helpful  factor  in  the  de- 
velopment and  prosperity  of  the  race.  In 
the  first  place,  as  the  Governor  noted  it,  it 
made  all  hands  very  industrious.  More 
corn  was  planted  than  would  have  been 
done  in  any  other  way,  and  as  Bradford 
quaintly  put  it,  "saved  him  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  and  gave  [them]  far  better  con- 
tent." The  women  now  went  willingly 
into  the  field  and  with  their  little  ones 
planted  the  corn.  Before  the  allotment 
they  would  have  alleged  weakness  and  in- 
ability. To  have  exercised  compulsion 
upon  them  would  have  been  thought 
166 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

tyranny  and  oppression.  The  young  men 
that  were  most  fit  for  labor  and  service 
repined  that  they  should  spend  their  time 
and  strength  for  other  men's  wives  and 
children  without  return.  "  The  strong,  or 
man  of  parts,  had  no  more  in  devission  of 
victaile  and  cloaths,  then  he  that  was 
weake  and  not  able  to  doe  a  quarter 
the  other  could."  (Bradford.) 

To  everybody  but  the  unfit  this  seemed 
injustice.  But  it  was  thought  indignity 
and  disrespect  to  make  no  distinction  in 
labor  and  its  returns  between  the  aged  and 
wise  and  the  younger  and  meaner  sort. 
Neither  wife  nor  husband  could  brook  the 
slavery  which  commanded  that  the  wife 
should  do  service  for  men  other  than  her 
husband.  The  effect  was  that  this  course 
diminished  the  actual  respect  that  should 
be  preserved  amongst  them  and  "would 
have  been  worse  if  they  had  been  men  of 
another  condition;  Let  none  object  this 
is  man's  corruption,  and  nothing  to  the 
course  itself.  I  answer,  seeing  all  men 
this  corruption  in  them,  God,  in  His 
1C7 


wisdom,   saw   another   course   fitter  for 
them,"  said  Bradford. 

The  only  two  things  that  appear  to  re- 
main unchanged  since  the  first  syllable  of 
recorded  time  are  nature  and  human  na- 
ture. The  same  procession  of  the  seasons, 
the  same  planting  and  reaping,  the  same 
movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and 
the  tides,  have  endured  from  the  begin- 
ning. 

"The  mists  that  wrapped  the  Pilgrims'  sleep 
Still  brood  upon  the  tide." 

And  human  nature  is  still  as  constant  as 
in  the  early  times,  still  fresh  is  human 
hope,  still  vigorous  is  human  credulity.  . 
•  If  it  were  impossible  for  communism  to 
succeed  on  Leyden  Street  three  hundred 
years  ago  in  a  homogeneous  community, 
speaking  the  same  language,  governed  by 
the  same  laws,  with  a  common  history, 
tradition,  and  memories,  under  the  very 
environment  which  would  seem  to  compel 
its  success,  living  under  a  contract  which 
required  its  adoption  and  acceptance,  en- 
gaged in  the  same  pursuits  and  in  the 
168 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

presence  of  common  perils,  it  is  idle  to 
argue  that  under  the  widely  different  and 
vastly  more  difficult  and  complicated 
conditions  of  the  present,  communism  can 
prove  a  success,  and  human  nature  re- 
main unchanged.  "The  experience  that 
was  had  in  this  commone  course  and 
condition,  tried  sundrie  years,  and  that 
amongst  godly  and  sober  men,  may  well 
evince  the  vaniti  of  that  conceite  of  Pla- 
tos  and  other  ancients,  applauded  by 
some  of  later  times;  that  the  taking  away 
of  propertie,  and  bringing  in  communitie 
into  a  comonewealth,  would  make  them 
happy  and  florishing;  as  if  they  were  wiser 
than  God." 

}  This  lesson  of  the  Pilgrim  days  may 
well  commend  itself  to  the  student  of 
modern  problems  and  is  a  happy  illustra- 
tion how  their  experience  may  still  con- 
tinue to  be  of  service. 

So  the  sagacious  Bradford  writes  the 
story  of  the  trial  and  failure  of  commu- 
nism in  Plymouth.    Under  its  impossible 
Conditions    and    discipline    "Personality 
169 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  initiative  are  crushed.  Each  man 
watches  his  neighbor  lest  he  be  not  doing 
his  full  share  of  work,  each  man  is  himself 
watched  and  all  distrust  all.  The  prom- 
ised freedom  of  action  is  hampered  by 
this  universal  atmosphere  of  distrust." 
These  words  which  I  have  just  quoted 
might  have  been  written  by  William 
Bradford  in  Plymouth.  They  picture,  as 
he  described,  conditions  in  Plymouth  as 
the  result  of  the  communistic  govern- 
ment, but  the  language  quoted  is  from 
a  late  report  of  a  writer  in  the  London 
"Times"  who  graphically  portrays  the 
communistic  conditions  in  Russia  in  1920. 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  this  con- 
clusion which  the  Pilgrim  reached  was 
based  on  actual  experience,  but  also  that 
they  had  listened  to  the  argument  on  the 
other  side.  Robert  Cushman  in  the  com- 
mon house  on  Ley  den  Street  had  preached 
his  sermon,  in  November,  1621,  on  "The 
Sin  and  Danger  of  Self  Love."  In  that  dis- 
course he  asks,  "Why  wouldst  thou  have 
thy  particular  portion  but  because  thou 
170 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

thinkest  to  live  better  than  thy  neigh- 
bor?" To  Satan  he  attributes  the  blame 
of  bringing  "this  particularizing  first  into 
the  world,"  and  forcibly  presents  the  argu- 
ment that  "if  others  be  idle  and  thou  dili- 
gent, thy  fellowship,  provocation  and  ex- 
ample may  well  help  to  cure  that  malady 
in  them,  being  together,  but  being  asun- 
der, shall  they  not  be  more  idle,  and  shall 
not  gentry  and  beggary  be  quickly  the 
glorious  ensigns  of  your  commonwealth?" 
The  argument  for  communism  is  well 
stated  by  the  lay  preacher,  who  was 
about  to  depart  to  England  not  to  return, 
and  who  took  the  opportunity  to  present 
to  them  some  considerations  for  their  ac- 
ceptance of  the  somewhat  unfortunate 
agreement  he  had  made  as  their  agent 
with  the  merchant  adventurers'  company, 
so  distinctly  communistic  in  character. 

But  it  was  a  condition  and  not  a  theory 

which  confronted  the  sagacious  leaders 

of  the  company.    The  reasons  given  by 

Bradford  and  their  own  experience  were 

^  more  persuasive  and  convincing,  as  to  the 

171 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

course  to  be  adopted,  than  the  earlier  ap- 
peal of  Cushman,  but  it  is  fair  to  say  that 
in  some  respects  at  least  the  case  for  com- 
munism has  not  been  better  presented  in 
the  past  three  hundred  years  than  in  the 
famous  sermon  of  Robert  Cushman. 

Among  the  present-day  problems  which 
attract  attention,  invite  discussion,  and 
result  in  much  ill-considered  and  unwise 
action,  is  the  question  of  the  proper  treat- 
ment of  what  are  termed  "undesirable 
citizens,"  who  seek  by  force  or  violence  to 
overturn  constitutional  government.  At 
the  present  time  deportation  seems  to  be 
the  peculiar  penalty,  with  slight  regard  to 
evidence,  and  no  reference  to  that  great 
constitutional  protection  of  the  individ- 
ual, jury  trial. 

i  This  problem  was  presented  to  the  Pil- 
grims, and  relatively  was  a  much  more 
serious  one  to  the  little  company  gathered 
upon  the  Plymouth  hillside  than  that 
which  presents  itself  to  one  hundred  and 
ten  millions  of  Americans  to-day. 
172 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

A  minister,  not  of  their  own  choosing, 
by  the  name  of  John  Lyford,  was  sent  at 
the  charge  of  the  merchant  adventurers 
to  the  Plymouth  Plantation  to  be  their 
pastor.  He  confessed  his  former  disor- 
derly walking  and  his  being  entangled 
with  many  corruptions,  the  nature  of 
which  particularly  appeared  later  in  the 
investigations,  but  making  a  confession  of 
his  faith  he  was  received  into  the  church. 

In  the  later  activities  of  Lyford  he  as- 
sociated himself  with  one  John  Oldham, 
and  the  two  together  seemed  to  have 
formed  a  conspiracy  to  create  as  great  a 
faction  as  possible  in  the  church  and  to 
overturn  the  church  and  commonwealth. 
Their  efforts  could  not  fail  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  watchful  leaders  of  the 
company.  It  was  thought  judicious  as 
well  as  necessary  in  those  simple  days 
before  making  an  arrest  to  secure  the 
necessary  evidence.  The  best  evidence 
then,  as  now,  is  the  written  evidence  in 
the  handwriting  of  and  signed  by  the  sus- 
pected  characters. 

173 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

When  the  ship  sailed  for  England  car- 
rying back  with  it  the  letters  of  Lyford, 
the  Governor  takes  the  shallop,  boards 
the  ship  in  the  outer  harbor,  and  seizes 
the  Lyford  letters,  more  than  twenty  in 
number,  full  of  false  accusations,  tending 
not  only  to  their  prejudice,  but  to  their 
ruin  and  utter  subversion.  The  Governor 
returns  with  the  letters  or  copies  and 
bides  his  time. 

The  delay  naturally  resulted  in  reliev- 
ing Lyford  of  any  apprehension  that  the 
Governor  had  detected  and  obtained  evi- 
dence of  their  plot,  and  the  conspirators 
proceeded  busily  with  their  scheme.  The 
Governor  let  things  ripen  in  order  to  better 
discover  the  intent  and  see  who  of  the 
company  had  joined  in  this  perilous  con- 
spiracy. Oldham  and  Lyford,  thinking 
they  were  strong  enough,  began  opera- 
tions. Oldham  being  called  to  stand  as 
watch,  refused  to  come,  resisted  the  cap- 
tain, and  drew  his  knife  at  him.  The  Gov- 
ernor, hearing  the  tumult,  sent  to  quiet  it, 
but  Oldham  raged  more  like  a  vicious  beast 
174 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

than  a  man,  and  called  them  all  traitors 
and  rebels,  and  other  such  foul  language 
as  Bradford  years  after  was  ashamed  to 
remember.  But  when  they  began  to  act 
publicly  what  they  had  long  been  plot- 
ting, the  time  had  come  for  action. 

A  court  was  called  by  the  Governor, 
the  whole  company  summoned  to  appear, 
and  charges  were  filed  against  Lyford  and 
Oldham.  They  denied  everything  and  de- 
manded proof.  Then  the  letters  were 
read.  Lyford  was  struck  mute.  Oldham 
raged  and  called  upon  his  supporters  to 
show  their  courage,  thinking  they  would 
side  with  him  in  open  rebellion.  But  his 
deluded  followers,  struck  with  the  injus- 
tice of  the  position  of  Oldham  and  evi- 
dently appreciating  that  he  had  carried 
the  matter  very  much  farther  than  they 
had  intended  or  he  had  even  stated  to 
them,  stood  silent. 

The  result  of  the  hearing  was  that  no 

witness  could  be  found  to  testify  in  their 

behalf,  and  their  adherents,  while  admit- 

f-  ting  that  they  had  attended  some  of  their 

175 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

meetings,  denied  that  they  had  agreed  to 
adopt  the  policy  and  carry  out  the  plans 
which  Lyford  had  outlined  to  them.  The 
trial  resulted  in  a  full  conviction,  and  was 
followed  by  a  complete  confession  on  Ly- 
ford's  part  that  all  he  had  written  was 
false  and  that  he  had  wronged  them  be- 
yond possibility  of  amends.  After  the 
trial,  conviction,  and  confession,  the 
court  ordered  Lyford  and  Oldham  to  be 
expelled  from  Plymouth,  Oldham  to  de- 
part at  once,  though  permission  was 
granted  for  his  family  to  remain  all  winter 
until  he  could  make  provision  for  their 
comfortable  removal,  and  Lyford  had 
permission  to  remain  six  months.  So 
mercy  tempered  justice. 

During  the  six  months  of  grace  which 
were  allotted  Lyford  he  was  again  de- 
tected in  correspondence  tending  to  in- 
jure the  colony,  but  at  its  expiration  he 
left  the  colony  and  later  went  from  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  to  Virginia,  where  he  shortly 
after  died,  and  as  Bradford  quaintly 
states  it,  "I  leave  him  to  the  Lord." 
176 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

Oldham  in  the  spring,  in  violation  of 
the  terms  of  his  sentence  that  he  should 
not  return  without  leave  being  first  ob- 
tained, appeared  in  the  streets  of  Plym- 
outh. His  passions  ran  beyond  the 
limits  of  all  reason  and  modesty,  so  that 
some  strangers  who  came  with  him  were 
ashamed  of  his  violence  and  rebuked  him. 
He  was  promptly  seized  and  committed 
to  prison  until  he  was  tamer,  and  then, 
through  a  guard  of  musketeers,  every  one 
of  whom  was  ordered  to  give  him  a 
"thump  on  the  brich  with  the  but  end 
of  his  musket,"  he  was  conveyed  to  the 
waterside  where  a  boat  was  ready  to 
carry  him  away.  "  Then  they  bid  him  goe 
and  mende  his  maners." 

Even  at  the  present  time,  when  depor- 
tation is  the  penalty  in  those  offenses 
against  order  and  government  with 
which,  unhappily,  we  are  now  familiar,  is 
it  not  well  to  remember  the  example  of  the 
Pilgrims  and  require  that  there  should  be 
neither  conviction  nor  sentence  except 
after  a  fair  trial,  before  an  impartial  jury, 
177 


PLYMOUTH  AND  THE  PILGRIMS 

and  where  the  accused  shall  have  full  op- 
portunity to  hear  the  testimony  of  the 
witnesses  summoned  against  him,  and  to 
reply? 

And  then  the  penalty  may  well  be  tem- 
pered with  mercy  according  to  the  wise 
and  approved  rule  of  the  great  Pilgrim 
pastor  in  his  letter  to  the  Governor,  the 
"punishment  to  a  few  and  the  fear  to 
many." 

If  for  a  moment  we  could  lift  the  veil  of 
the  centuries  and  from  out  the  shadowy 
past  summon  the  form  of  one  of  the  great 
leaders  of  that  immortal  company  to 
stand  forth  and  be  their  spokesman  to-day, 
and  bid  the  dumb  lips  speak  again  as  in 
the  olden  time,  this  would  be  the  Pil- 
grim's message  which  would  fall  on  your 
attentive  and  listening  ears: 

"The  toils  we  bore 

Your  ease  have  wrought, 
We  sowed  in  tears, 

In  joy  you  reap. 
That  birthright  we  so  dearly  bought 

Here  guard,  till  you  with  us  shall  sleep!" 


(Ilie 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S   .   A 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    000  037  573     3 


